


A Fishy Deal

by esaael, QueenoftheRandomWord42



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Animals spitting out food, Arnie Roth is awesome, Captain America Steve/Modern Bucky Barnes, Casual Sex, Characters so thirsty they might as well be dehydrated XD, Fish Behavior, Fluff and Smut, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Friends with Benefits to Lovers AU, Homophobia, Lust at First Sight, M/M, Misogyny, Mistaken Identity, More tags to follow, Nontoxic relatives giving unconditional support, Oral Sex, Period-Typical Homophobia, Petsitter Steve Rogers, Reunions, Rimming, Sex Toys, Sharing a Bed, Shrunkyclunks Big Bang 2019, Steve Rogers vs Antivaxxer Facebook Mother, Steve and Bucky make a fantastic team, accidental animal cruelty, art in chapter two, assholes get arrested, bad guys get arrested, family dynamics can be messy, happy betta fish, homophobic relatives and the telling off of, internalized misogyny in some minor side characters, off camera domestic abuse implied, sometimes you gotta cut ties from toxic people, this gets fixed quickly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2020-06-24 12:52:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 31,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19724050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esaael/pseuds/esaael, https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenoftheRandomWord42/pseuds/QueenoftheRandomWord42
Summary: James Buchanan Barnes was a man of many talents. He was a fantastic shot, could speak several languages, was skilled in a few martial arts, really passionate about space and science museums, Fuck Buddy of Steve Rogers, and was a proud owner of a few betta fish.Things changed when Bucky's sister charged in to talk to her brother and wound up inviting Steve to the wedding as his plus one.But Weddings bring out the best and the worst in people, will their relationship survive?" “What just happened?” Steve asked as he ducked back into the bathroom.“I think you just got invited to my sister’s wedding in my ex-boyfriend’s stead…” Bucky said blinking."





	1. Emotional Support Plus One

**Author's Note:**

> For the Shrunkyclunks Big Bang 2019.  
> Special thanks to my friend Triopsmaster for beta reading at the last minute, to Furious_Winter for the initial suggestion that led to this wild fic, and most important of all to esaael for their cheerleading, brainstorming and fantastic squeal-worthy art embedded into the fic.  
> It's been an honor.  
> I'll be posting a chapter a day until the end of the bang and will be adding more tags as the chapters progress.  
> For those who want to read the story but skip the sex scenes in this fic, feel free to skip between the ~*~*~*~ as they are the markers of the beginnings and endings of the sex scenes.  
> And Pardon my tres tres mal francais, it has been several years since I studied french, so I might have a few errors in this chapter.

James Buchanan Barnes was a man of many talents. He was a fantastic shot, could speak several languages, was skilled in a few martial arts, really passionate about space and science museums, and was a proud owner of a few betta fish.

~*~*~*~

“Right there, right there, yes,” Bucky begged, his fingers curled tightly into his pillow and he gasped for breath, feeling the warmth flush around him, the sheets digging into his knees, as he felt his fuck buddy eat his ass like it was a god damn gourmet meal.

“Nice to know I’m not out of practice,” came the wry reply.

“Talk to me,” Bucky demanded, “and finger me as you do.”

“How do you wish me to speak to you?” Steve asked, covering his fingers in lube as he began to gently massage his entrance, the cool fingers made Bucky shiver in anticipation, his dick warmed and tingled in excited anticipation.

“Anything, it doesn't have to be in English,” Bucky said, and Bucky could feel Steve chuckle.

“Que diriez-vous que je vous parle en français?” Steve asked in French, which Bucky smirked when Steve offered to flirt with him in French.

“Oui,” Bucky said cheekily, and Steve asked him in French if he should enter him. Bucky repeated his desire with more enthusiastic “oui”s.

Steve inserted a finger and Bucky squirmed a little before he pressed his butt in the direction of Steve’s hand.

“So impatient,” Steve teased in English, inserted another finger and did a quick scissors motion over Bucky’s prostate, which caused Bucky to gasp.

“Do that again,” Bucky demanded and Steve chuckled.

“So demanding,” Steve purred and repeated the motion, and varied it a little causing Bucky to tremble and moan a little.

His body grew tense and his body felt the build-up in excitement.

“I’m gonna cum,” Bucky announced his voice thick as he forced the words out.

“Go ahead,” Steve permitted and Bucky gasped as his body climaxed, he shivered and panted and Steve held him up as Bucky’s limbs failed to support him and Bucky grinned at Steve as he tried to catch his breath.

“That good huh?” Steve asked, and Bucky nodded when he caught his breath. When he regained his second wind, he turned to Steve.

“Now it’s my turn to make you squirm,” Bucky announced, “How do you want it.”

Steve blushed a little, “I have the butt plug still in…”

Bucky nodded with a smirk, he knew Steve had it in him, he helped put it in with a good squirt of lube, and Steve wanted a little time to stretch out.

“And you’re ready now?” Bucky asked, and Steve grinned in anticipation.

“Very.”

“How do you want me to do it?” Bucky asked, “On your back like a blushing virgin missionary style? Or on your knees or with your knees over my shoulder, while I hold you up?”

Steve shuddered at the idea of the last one, then he requested it with a grin.

Bucky grinned and reached for the plug, the silicon was a colorful swirl of red, silver, blue, and black, “Ready?”

“Yes, yes and hold me up,” Steve pleaded, and Bucky obliged, cradling Steve a little with his knees over Bucky’s shoulder, his fingers around the handle in the butt plug.

“Alright, I’m ready to pull out the plug, are you ready?” Bucky urged.

“Yes,” Steve pleaded, cradled gently and Bucky slid the plug in and out.

Steve gasped and squealed and Bucky lined up the plug at a slightly different angle, squeezing more lube and dove into Steve’s stretched ass, gently entering and pulled back a little.

Steve clenched, wiggled, and used his arms to push his ass closer to Bucky’s hand a little and grunted, “again, and more!”

Bucky obliged, adding a slight twist with his wrist that made Steve squeal, and kept repeating as Steve demanded more until Steve climaxed, Bucky smirked in tired satisfaction that his fuck buddy could be reduced to a pleasured puddle.

His own sated pleasure was different then the past several months, his ex-boyfriend didn’t like being as vulnerable as Steve liked to be, so it was harder for Bucky to go all out like this.

Well, almost like this, Bucky still had the corsets and outfits locked away in a box in storage, and if they were to pick up this arrangement again he'd be happy to pull them back out.

Bucky pulled out the plug, feeling Steve’s hot red skin against his hand as the plug slid out. He wiped it down a little, deciding he’d clean it properly later, and place it back into the little box he stored all his sex toys under his bedside table, the lube bottle sat on top.

Maybe next time he’d use the vibrating dildo with the special knob meant for extra prostate stimulation, that toy made Steve scream when he climaxed.

~*~*~*~

Bucky rolled out of bed.

“Thanks for coming on such short notice Steve,” Bucky said as he tossed Steve his shorts.

“Anytime, didn’t get a chance to talk before that last mission, are you doing okay?” Steve asked, pulling on his boxers and looking Bucky in the eye with his sweet concern, “ I mean I heard it got tense when you and--”

“It’s fine, I feel more relieved it’s over than anything else,” Bucky said with a sigh, then he heard a knock on the door.

“Sounds like the Pizza’s here, wanna pick the movie?” Bucky asked, hastily shoving on sweats and Steve’s tee-shirt on, the post-coital pizza movie was sounding really awesome right about now, and it's something he missed for months.

“Victor Victoria?” Steve asked, and Bucky laughed, “Come on Bucky you promised me Julie Andrews in Drag before we got sidetracked.”

Sidetracked sounded like a tasteful way of saying that Bucky got too preoccupied with… You-know-Who to spend as much quality time with Steve.

The door knocked again and Steve ducked into the bathroom to shower, leaving the responsibility of paying for the pizza on Bucky.

Well, Steve was the guest…

Bucky passed the sorority tank, the girls swarmed around in bright colors before he passed the kitchen to the front door, the bathroom situated so Steve wouldn’t be interrupted while he did a quick shower.

In the living room Bucky grinned as he passed the three tanks, the brightly colored male bettas began begging Bucky for a second meal that hour, and likely would keep begging as their other favorite human Steve spoiled them about worse than Bucky.

Bucky picked up his phone as the case doubled as his wallet while he was off duty, and noticed he got a text notification.

He unlocked the screen as he reached the door, and realized it was a text from Becca about thirty minutes ago, while he was giving Steve a blow job in the kitchen.

It was the text that came before Becca’s latest message that made Bucky’s heart freeze, and pulling his eyes away from the “Message failed to send” notification the old text to the sound of a key turning his lock.

“There had better be a good reason why I had to unlock your door Bucky,” Becca demanded as she squeezed her way into his apartment.

“Yeah, I just got it, and was about to text you back,” Bucky said, holding out the unlocked phone, “And you’re clearly not the pizza guy.”

Becca scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“I can’t stay long, I need to confirm what you and your new boyfriend want for the reception dinner,” Becca began, in the bossy tone she picked up ever since she approached the wedding date, “and I’d like his name for placemats and table settings, I needed these by last week, but your my brother so I’m giving you a grace period. I’d also like to meet the man who clearly is making my brother so happy.”

Bucky glanced at the failed message, one that had all the information Becca was demanding, the one he tried to send before his latest mission to infiltrate a mysterious underwater lab run by some lame neo-nazi offshoots threatening the world. Bucky even blew up their online modem after he caught one of them cyberbullying a child, which made them even more evil in his eyes.

The failed text message telling his sister that Bucky broke up with his boyfriend and that it would just be him at her wedding.

“Oh, well, I tried to tell you, my--”

“Hey Bucky, is the pizza here?” Steve asked from the bathroom door.

Bucky and Becca turned around and Bucky mentally calculated just how much of Steve, dripping wet, steamy from the shower, wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his middle, was visible from the front door.

Steve froze and began to back a little.

Becca however grinned, glanced at Bucky with an impressive expression, and pushed Bucky aside after Bucky tried to block her view.

“Oh, wow, hi, I’m Becca Barnes, two questions real quick, What is your name, and beef, chicken, fish, or vegan?”

“Uh… Steve Rogers and fish?” Steve asked a little taken aback at frozen in his tracks.

“Hi Steve, nice to finally meet you, I have heard. So. Little. About. You,” Becca said, glaring at Bucky as if he had committed a grievous crime concealing Steve from her.

“You have your own fiance,” Bucky grumbled, nudging her with his elbow.

Thankfully Becca’s phone buzzed, “I gotta go, I need to visit the florist and make a few calls about the centerpieces, and Bucky, I think you’ll really like what Michael suggested for the wedding.”

Then like a whirlwind, Becca rushed out the door with a wave, and a few blown kisses at them as she sauntered past the pizza guy.

“What just happened?” Steve asked as he ducked back into the bathroom.

“I think you just got invited to my sister’s wedding in my ex-boyfriend’s stead…” Bucky said as he passed money over to the pizza guy, “keep the change as your tip.”

“Thanks,” The pizza guy said as he ducked out, clearly avoiding the drama.

“Wait, didn’t you tell her about the breakup?” Steve asked bewildered.

Bucky waved his phone in Steve’s direction. “I tried, but the text failed to send.”

“Because your phone is old and your locker is a dead zone?” Steve asked, used to the common excuse Bucky always had to late messages.

“Because my phone is old and my locker is a dead zone,” Bucky confirmed with a sigh, then looked at Steve closely, “You don’t have to go, I can tell Becca that I broke up with my boyfriend, and go by myself, I can resend the failed text right now with no problem. And Becca’s the bride, this kind of gossip will be all over the family before midnight tonight.”

Steve shook his head, “Nah, I remember the Christmas where you came back early because you couldn’t stand your Uncle Victor.”

“Also Aunt Linda is coming, mom invited her, because inviting your younger sister and mortal enemy to your gay son to your straight daughter’s wedding is such a good idea,” Bucky grumbled, taking the box into the kitchen and pulling out plates because if he’s going to eat, he might as well be civilized about it.

“Wait, isn’t Aunt Linda the anti-vaxxer?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Then it’s official, I am going as your emotional support plus one,” Steve said, dressed in his pants, and Bucky’s eyes kept tracing the rapidly healing hickies he left on him earlier. Steve’s voice taking on that stern tone that Bucky heard him say when he made an inspiring speech, his arms crossed over his wet chest.

“Steve, you’re the best fake boyfriend a guy could ask for,” Bucky said, passing Steve his few pieces of pizza and lifting the plate as a toast.

The thing was, Steve and Bucky were never a couple, they were friends.

Friends with benefits including but not limited too…

Pet sitting, plant watering, book and movie recommendations, fantasy geeking buds, and sex.


	2. Pet-sitter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter two, much longer and our first bit of art! I'm not going to lie, I looked at the art during my lunch break and my coworker heard me squeal like Lottie from the Princess and the Frog.  
> Also Readers of my SamSteve fic "For Better or Worse" might like the cameo I put in.  
> All behavior exhibited by these betta fish are based on actual pets I had, Tesla is a lot like my betta Zuko, Faraday is like my fish Thor, and Banner is like my old fish Zorro (seriously Zorro got picked on by goldfish before I got him so he was my shy boy).

It began innocently enough when Bucky walked down to the gym for his usual work out and caught a glimpse at a rather unusual sight.

At first glance, the circumstance was normal, it was almost two in the morning at the SHIELD facility training gym where Bucky wanted to train and work out with some peace and quiet while his brain failed to shut down and let him sleep.

His sister Becca would have blamed it on his overuse of electronics, his mother on “poor sleep hygiene”--whatever that means--only his father would correctly guess why Bucky was normally up so late, but like a good former soldier, George Barnes never discussed the reason for his son’s insomnia.

So when Bucky went down to do his usual work out of squats, stretches, and working out whatever tension he had with the punching ball in the back corner when he realized he wasn’t alone.

Down there, punching a huge punching bag with dogged determination, was a well built blond man. Bucky could see that this man’s physique was one of strength, those powerful legs were the kind that would make some impressive kicks and the punching style of those powerful biceps brought fantasies of rather athletic sex.

The man’s shoulders to hip ratio also seemed almost unreal, like he was sculpted to be a surreal fantasy, or at least a photoshopped ad made real, and the tiny size of his hips drew Bucky’s eye to the man’s ass.

Once Bucky realized he was staring at another man’s butt without the other man being aware that he had company--which very rude of him--so Bucky pulled his eyes away. He was about to clear his throat to announce his presence when the stranger gave the punching bag a final hit, causing its chains to snap and its seams to pop, spilling sand all over the gym floor.

“Well,” Bucky said aloud after he felt a jolt to his privates, “that got my attention.”

He took a deep breath and tried to think unsexy thoughts while the stranger turned to him in a startled motion. After remembering a childhood of his Old Aunt Linda’s bristly mustached kisses on baby Bucky’s cheeks killed the boner before it could form, Bucky was able to turn his full attention to the man staring at him.

Honestly, the shape of America’s Ass should have given the stranger’s identity away, but Bucky supposed he could be excused from not recognizing Captain Steve Rogers out of uniform after he was defrosted a few months ago.

Roger’s bright blue eyes focused in on him with sharp determination and mild surprise, before he turned away in what Bucky read as a mild embarrassment.

Of course, reading people was part of Bucky’s job.

“I should go, give you room to do your workout,” Rogers said, straightening up and picking up the punching bag one-handedly, and Bucky had to focus on Roger’s smile, it wasn’t a friendly natural smile, but the mask kind of smile that Bucky saw all the time in customer service employees.

“Why? There’s a lot of room, I don’t see any reason for you to quit,” Bucky shrugged, then gestured to the empty room. “I’ll take this side, you can take that side, we’ll get better at boxing together.”

Rogers paused, and then picked up the remains of the torn bag, and pulled out a spare punching bag, and went back to his exercises.

Bucky began with his warm-ups-squats, push-ups, sit-ups, the like--and began punching the punching ball instead of working with some of his usual weights, noticing that Rogers was watching him out of the corner of his eye.

Bucky gave him a cheeky wink and went back to punching the punching ball.

“You box?” Rogers finally asked.

“I used to in high school, still keep the skills up just in case I need it, but I use it to add variety to my nightly workout,” Bucky said, “It’s been a while since I really sparred with someone.”

“I could help with that,” Rogers began and shifted a little.

“Yeah?” Bucky asked, but he could see that Steve was nervous about something, and Steve kept glancing at the broken punching bag. “Just go a little easy on me, I’ll grab the safety equipment.”

“Equipment?” Rogers asked.

“Yeah, you know mouth guards, patted helmets, no punching heads or below the belt, those kinds of rules?” Bucky began, and it seemed to dawn on Rogers what Bucky meant.

“Right, don’t want anyone getting hurt,” Rogers nodded, but Bucky could see he was a little uncertain.

“I’m James Barnes, but my friend’s call me Bucky,” Bucky said, reaching to the boxes in the back and pulling out some of the safety equipment, tossing one of the blue helmets to Steve while Bucky strapped on a red one on to his own head.

“I’m Steve Rogers,” Steve said.

“Nice to meet you, Steve.”

Steve caught it and copied Bucky as Bucky pulled out matching gloves, and when both were fully equipt, they climbed into the ring and began a few boxing matches.

Steve had developed a lot of coordination and control of his massive body, using clever angles and fought like a much smaller man.

The force behind those hits was definitely a sign of a man well aware of his own limits and how he surpassed normal mortal man.

Bucky got a few good licks in with his own natural agility, adept skill at body language reading--seriously the man was like an open book, terrible for spy work, but then again Bucky had seen those kinds of soldiers before--and Bucky’s sniper patience paid off allowing him to wait for the correct opportunity to get in under Steve’s guard.

If Steve wasn’t a super soldier, Bucky would assume they were evenly matched, so Bucky just marveled at how much self-control Steve had developed.

When both wore themselves down, Bucky called it quits before Steve’s careful self-control slipped because he was getting tired. Bucky wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and sleep, and he kept the fantasies of crawling into bed with Steve to himself.

“That was a lot of fun, care to do this again sometime?” Bucky asked, taking his helmet off and shaking the sweaty hair out of his eyes.

“Uh, yeah, that would be fun,” Steve said almost nervously, but Bucky could see that there was a bit of a blush.

“Can’t be every night, some nights I have missions,” Bucky shrugged, cleaning the boxing gloves and hanging them to dry.

Steve paused, and Bucky realized he didn’t make the connection about Bucky’s job at Shield.

“You’re an Agent of SHIELD?” Steve asked.

“Only when I’m on the clock I’m Agent Barnes, off the clock I’m just Bucky, it makes it a bit easier, you know?”

“And now?”

“Off the clock,” Bucky insisted, and his phone beeped, “I’ve got to go, I have to go to work in a few hours, and I have fish that need to be fed.”

“You’re a real man of mystery, Bucky,” Steve teased, and Bucky felt a lot warmer than he managed to pull Steve further out of his shell.

“You got it,” Bucky said with a tease and wrote down his phone number--the personal one that is kept in a special locker while he’s on the mission-- “Feel free to call when you need another boxing match.”

Steve grinned and waved Bucky off as they both parted to go their separate ways in the Washington DC night.

***

Their friendship began to grow a little more after that, from sparring in the boxing ring and practicing their skills, Steve becoming a little more gentle with the boxing equipment.

Bucky was getting better at avoiding damage and slipping under a bigger opponent's guard, and Steve was getting better at masking his next few moves while anticipating where his sparring opponent might strike.

Then Steve and Bucky would talk about adding other martial arts to their sparring practices to make things more interesting.

It was moments like when Bucky managed to get under Steve’s guard and knock him to the floor, (seriously Steve really should have known better than to leave himself open like that) when Steve realized something important.

Bucky didn’t treat him like he was made of glass.

Steve had noticed some of the SHIELD employees, especially right before the Battle of New York, when Steve was freshly thawed and shocked by how much time he missed, handled him with kid gloves like he would break or something.

After one mission in early November, Steve had a protection mission and took Steve longer than he should have to realize the target he needed to protect was in a gay bar.

Or that the target was trying to pick up an off duty police officer at the said gay bar, and the officer was not a honey trap for a sting operation, but a young man looking for a fun night.

Unfortunately, someone mistook Steve’s fear for his ward’s safety as period typical homophobia, which leads to an awkward conversation with HR.

Two hours later of stressful conversations, Agnes Maybel Renolds, an apathetic older woman from HR deducted that the blame should lie on the agent who was supposed to debrief him.

Steve was quietly irritated that his SHIELD handler responsible failed to explain to him that homosexuality had been decriminalized in the intervening years he slept. The target later married the cop he picked up at the bar--Steve was tickled pink to discover that same-sex marriage was legal in the state of New York--and Steve figured everything out after a puzzling debriefing and reading a book about gay rights from the public library.

“Honestly I don’t know why the guy Fury assigned to tell you flubbed it,” Bucky said during one of their work out sessions, holding the punching bag steady for Steve. Bucky was thankfully sympathetic and was helpful in giving Steve more information on the subject, “it might be because they don’t know if they are dealing with your normal, or if you’re still stuck in some aspect of grief.”

“I’m not grieving anything,” Steve denied instantly, and Steve felt the slight fading feelings swell and die. But he failed to prove his point when his next punch on the punching bag was harder than he expected and Bucky bounced a little.

“Alright, then,” Bucky shrugged.

“No seriously, I got most of that out of my system when I went on that road trip after the battle of New York,” Steve insisted.

“Good enough for me, because I’m gay, and I’m relieved that Captain America is an ally,” Bucky shrugged, then changed the subject, “mind spotting me while I bench press?”

Steve nodded and followed Bucky to the weights, spotting Bucky as he began his nearly nightly reps.

Steve found himself to be an excellent spotter, he counted for Bucky, kept Bucky from pushing too fast, and Bucky didn’t need to worry about hurting himself because Steve was there to help him.

It was a nice feeling, almost normal.

After Bucky finished, his phone buzzed, and Bucky put the weights aside with a simple “Excuse me.”

Bucky stepped out into the hallway, and Steve tried not to eavesdrop as he went back to the punching bags. The silence was filled only by Bucky’s side of the conversation.

“Hey, what’s up?” it sounded like Bucky was talking to a friend, “no, no, that’s fine, you take care of that, I’ll find someone else to watch them.”

Steve decided to move on to the weird-looking kettle weights instead, his back to Bucky as he tried not to listen in, but that didn’t stop his super-soldier hearing from hearing Bucky continue speaking.

“Okay, good luck and happy Thanksgiving to you too, bye.”

Bucky walked back in while Steve paused between his kettle weight repetitions, and Steve looked up to see Bucky frown.

“Something wrong?” Steve asked.

“No,” Bucky began, but then he paused and gave Steve a double-take, “unless you wanna do me a favor?”

“What is it?” Steve asked, suddenly curious.

“How are you with fish?” Bucky asked, his tone serious.

“I have no positive or negative opinion on them,” Steve shrugged, “I’m guessing you have a favor that involves them?”

“Yeah, I have three betta fish back at my place, and I need someone to feed them while I’m away on Thanksgiving if you don’t have any plans on those days, would you be willing to take care of them?”

Steve, as a matter of fact, had absolutely nothing planned on Thanksgiving weekend, barring any world-ending emergencies.

“Why not?”

“Excellent, when we’re done here, do you wanna come over to my place at oh seven hundred, and I’ll show you how to feed them?”

Shouldn’t be too hard.

Seven o'clock in the morning rolled around when Bucky led Steve to his apartment, which had a handful of plants near the various corners around the place.

“Don’t worry about watering the plants, they’re plastic,” Bucky said as he guided Steve past the kitchen and into the living room of the place, where three fish tanks with black painted cardboard dividers sat between each of the tanks.

“That’s fine,” Steve nodded, he had a few cacti that thrived on Steve’s habitual neglect from being gone on long missions, and they gave him something to come home to at the end of those missions.

“They are trained to come up when the lights are one for breakfast, so turning on the tank lights is like ringing a dinner bell,” Bucky said, reaching over the lids of the tanks to turn on the lights, illuminating three clean fish tanks with brightly colored silk and plastic plants inside with small bits of brightly colored gravel and white coral sand on the bottom.

Bucky then picked up a small tin labeled “Betta pellets” with some blue and red fish swimming around the logo and handed it to Steve to examine.

“I’ll write this down before I leave, but each fish gets five pellets.”

“Seems simple so far,” Steve observed, then he twisted the lid open to see tiny little pellets inside, looking a bit like large-grained brown sand.

“It will look like a tiny amount, but betta fish have tiny stomachs and they are cold-blooded, so it’s dangerously easy to overfeed them,” Bucky explained. “They should eat them within five to ten minutes of you dropping the food in, but after that, you need to remove the uneaten food because it’ll pollute the water quality and it’s not good for anyone to breathe in rotten food.”

Steve looked at the tanks and saw three different fish emerge from the plastic plants with smooth grace.

“These are Tesla, Faraday, and Banner,” Bucky said pointing at each fish in question, “Boys, this is Steve.”

“Banner?” Steve asked, then looked closely at the fish named “Banner” which was entirely green in coloration.

“Yeah, they’re named after famous scientists.”

Bucky lifted the lid of the first one, and Steve passed over five pellets into Bucky’s waiting palm. “Tesla’s a picky eater, so I’m going to feed him while I’ll have you practice on the other ones.”

Tesla was a beautiful fish with a white and blue body with yellow fins with blue markings on the edges of them. He patrolled the water just under the surface until Bucky dropped one of the pellets right in front of him.

Steve watched as Tesla froze and began to stalk the pellet-like it was going to swim away at any moment, his side fins flashing, like a hummingbird’s wings in rapid motion, then when Steve blinked, the fish struck, the pellet gone and the fish a few inches away from the location the target used to be, his head moving in a nodding motion with tiny little crunching noises.

“See, that’s how we know they are eating…” Bucky began, then Tesla did something Steve found really weird.

Tesla seemed to pause, then his gill covers seemed to stretch out to the sides, making his face look weirdly distorted, and Steve began to worry for the fish’s safety before Tesla opened his mouth, shut his gills and the crushed remains of the pellets were squirted out of his mouth and began sinking to the bottom of the tank.

“Aw, come on Tes, really?” Bucky moaned while Tesla went back to patrolling the surface for more food.

“Does he always do that?” Steve asked, a little alarmed.

“He’s a spoiled stubborn little shit,” Bucky sighed, but Steve could hear how much affection was laced into his words, and as Bucky pulled out a small plastic pipet to suck up the small bits of uneaten food, Tesla tried biting the plastic with his tiny little mouth.

“So if he won’t eat it, why feed it to him in the first place?” Steve asked.

“Because normally he’ll eat it, but it’s like getting a kid to eat his broccoli, sometimes he’ll eat it, other times he’ll leave it to rot before he’ll ever touch it,” Bucky sighed pulling the pipet out of the tank to dump it into the kitchen sink before he pulled out another tin labeled “Freeze Dried Tubifex Worms”.

“What are these?” Steve asked.

“Marginally healthy treats, if Tesla won’t eat these, then he’s seriously sick, they are his favorite food,” Bucky explained sprinkling a few of the freeze-dried worms on the surface, and Tesla proceeded to eat those like Bucky was going to take them away.

Then from the tank next to Tesla’s Steve heard a high pitched grinding noise, almost like someone had rubbed two pieces of rubber together to make it squeak.

“Faraday, on the other hand, is a fish-shaped garbage disposal, and is the only fish of mine who will make a squeaking noise if he thinks I’m taking too long with the food,” Bucky explained.

Faraday looked similar to Tesla, only Faraday and a pure white body and blue fins with no hint of yellow on him. He also looked a little bigger than Tesla.

“I thought fish don’t make noise?” Steve asked.

“I read that most noises fishes make are too low pitched for human ears, and I’ve only heard Faraday make that noise a few times, you probably won’t hear him make that noise again,” Bucky shrugged, and lifted the tank for Steve to drop a pellet into the water.

Faraday struck the food the instant it hit the water, even having his head bob a little above the surface before he repeated Tesla’s chewing motions and swallowed the pellet.

“Make sure Faraday gets five pellets, and five pellets only, he’s a beggar and if given the option would eat until he explodes,” Bucky warned.

“I thought he’d know when he’s full?” Steve asked.

“Nope, these guys are like dogs, they will eat even if they’re not hungry if presented with food, and too much food, even eaten food, will cloud their water with ammonia when they excrete it.”

“What happens when they have too much ammonia?” Steve asked curiously.

“It burns their gills and poisons them, so if they start gulping for air frequently, for long periods of time, it means that you’ll need to take them out and put them in a thing of clean water, so if you see that, I give you permission to give them an emergency water change.”

So Steve only gave Faraday his five pellets and closed the lid when Faraday ate the last one, ignoring the fish’s continued patrolling for more food. It was for Faraday’s own good.

“And Banner’s a bit shy, so don’t be surprised if he flees from you, he’ll eat when it’s quiet,” Bucky explained directing Steve to the last tank, where a pure green betta rose and bobbed out from behind some plants, and darted back when he saw Steve.

Steve gently dropped a pellet, and waited, Banner slowly rose to the surface, gently grabbed the pellet, and dove back in to watch Steve from his little hidey-hole until Steve dropped another pellet. This went on during the entire meal.

“So, you have a green betta named Banner?” Steve asked again with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, I got him after the battle of New York, so he’s my youngest,” Bucky said with an eye roll.

“I’m going to tell Bruce he has a fish named after him.”

“Go ahead, I’m sure he’ll be flattered.”


	3. Friends-With-Benefits

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to reference Steve's love of the Tolkien books from the 70s comics as well as some build-up for the sorority tank and some stuff that will happen from chapter five onward.

The four-day weekend went without a hitch, and Bucky was pleased to come home to three clean tanks and three happy bettas waiting for him to come home. Steve left a note telling him that Tesla ate his pellets only once and ate freeze-dried worms the rest, and Banner got scared when Steve accidentally bumped the tank but seemed fine when Steve gave Banner the freeze-dried worms as an apology.

Bucky’s heart fluttered at the sweet gesture and the note was handwritten in neat legible cursive, so Bucky decided to have the grace not to tell anyone he had Steve’s autograph.

At the end of the note there was a P.S. asking for permission to share pictures of Banner to Bruce Banner, and laughing Bucky texted him permission as long as Steve told him how the Incredible Hulk reacted at being something’s namesake. His phone sent the text successfully.

Thirty minutes later Steve sent him a video of a small curly-haired man’s face filling with bashful joy, and a caption about Bruce was looking at a video of Banner sneaking around in the silk plants before grabbing his dinner and darting back, and Bruce curious about seeing if videos like this might be more effective at calming the Hulk than the lullaby they tried with Natasha.

Bucky got a text from an unknown number demanding more fish videos.

He sent one of feeding Tesla as Tesla tried to refuse frozen brine shrimp and flared up at them as if they had insulted his family while Faraday tried to eat them from the other side of the glass when he saw them approach.

The next time at the gym, Bucky noticed that Steve was also sweet enough to provide Bucky with extra safe boxing equipment for the both of them, which Bucky was pleased to realize meant that Steve was taking his own safety seriously when Bucky was involved during their three nights a week where they boxed.

Bucky also got to know the intelligent mind behind those astonishing blue eyes and had to satisfy himself with respecting Steve’s boundaries as Steve continued to adjust to the 21st century.

It seemed wrong to want something more emotional from him, especially after Steve canceled on them one night in May because he had visited Peggy on one of her bad days. That was a stark reminder that if Bucky wanted anything more with Steve, he’d be competing against former Director Carter, and that woman was a league that would ruin a man for other relationships.

But Steve did need friends, and Bucky could provide that, even when their friendship progressed to something more physical.

So, when they got so used to each other’s boxing moves that it got boring, Bucky and Steve mixed it up with other martial arts, Bucky mostly utilizing his natural agility to provide a challenge, and Bucky proved himself to be close to Steve’s level in his non-serumed state.

Then they ended their workouts with tiebreakers.

These tiebreakers varied from video games to games of chance, lots of sex, and once a drinking contest that Steve tried to back out of, and had the grace not to gloat or say “I told you so,” when he nursed a hangover Bucky back to health before work the next day. Bucky showed Steve his gratitude by giving him an exceptional blow job on a later date.

If both were feeling a little extra lonely and horny, no strings attached casual sex certainly livened things up a little.

When Steve needed a break from catching up on the history books, Bucky discovered that Steve was a big fan of the Hobbit from when he was younger, and Steve slept through the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Silmarillion, so Bucky lent him all his Tolkien books, and had the cultural context to warn Steve about the retcon Tolkien did in The Hobbit about how Bilbo found the One Ring for the continuity of the other books.

On nights after a long mission where Bucky was too tired to work out, they watched the movies to compare them to the books.

Steve devoured the books like they were the very air he breathed, and Bucky searched his sci-fi rich library books for Steve to read and wound up calling Becca for recommendations.

Bucky had the best younger sister in the world, because she mailed him her Tamora Pierce books instead, and the little punk from Brooklyn who tried to enlist in the army five separate times from different cities was enchanted in the first book series about Alanna of Trebond and her quest to defy gender norms--and dress as a boy--to become a knight.

Several months had passed in this friendly blur and it was finally Christmas when the earth shifted slightly in their relationship.

“So, do you have any Christmas plans, Steve?” Bucky asked while he was camped on the floor in front of his sofa, eyes glued to the screen like he did as a teenager, and rapidly pressed buttons on his old Wii remote.

Steve casually threw a blue turtle shell at Bucky’s Peach, allowing his Koopa Trooper to pass and take the first place.

“Nope,” Steve chuckled over Bucky’s curses, “I might have a brief dinner with Tony and a few other Avengers, but I’m off the mission roster for a few weeks, why?”

“Is it because you broke your ankle last week and your doctor isn’t sure it’s fully healed?” Bucky asked, glancing at the elevated limb on the sofa, and the reason why Bucky was on the floor sitting like a teenager playing video games.

The game began the next race countdown and Bucky realized the game started the next race and frantically had to get his race car to catch up with Steve.

Maybe talking to Steve while playing Mario Kart Wii was a terrible idea, but they needed another tiebreaker when Bucky noticed Steve was limping during their Judo practice and suggested Mario Kart instead.

Steve tried to use is “1940s aw-shucks I can walk it off” bravado before Bucky faked a yawn and Steve agreed Mario Kart would be safer for someone who might fall asleep instead.

Steve only agreed to play Mario Kart because unlike other video games, he was actually really good at Mario Kart Wii.

“My mom’s making holiday plans, and I didn’t use up any paid holiday leave,” Bucky explained, “my team leader noticed, so I have to take two weeks off or I’m going to lose them, and going back to work after New Year’s, and meeting up with the rest of the Hicks clan on the twenty-second before heading to Great-Uncle Barnes place for the rest of the year.”

“I’m guessing you want me to watch the boys?” Steve asked, and Bucky saw the lead Steve carefully cultivated grow again thanks to a gold mushroom… Show Off.

“Yeah, would that be alright?” Bucky asked, glancing at the table next to the TV, Faraday was napping on his silk plant, Banner was messing with his bubble nest, and Tesla was patrolling the upper level of his tank.

“Definitely, I can feed the boys before I leave for dinner, and come back the next day to feed them again,” Steve shrugged.

Bucky’s phone made a pinging sound, and Bucky ignored it in favor of gaining ground, thankfully for him, Steve missed a shortcut, and Bucky took advantage of Steve’s mistake to take the lead.

“Are you going to get that?” Steve asked, and Bucky laughed.

“Nope, that’s my google alerts, letting me know my favorite betta fish blog updated, they’ve got tips on how to make a successful sorority tank,” Bucky shrugged, and he stole first place from Steve.

“Sorority tank?” Steve asked.

“A tank of all-female betta fish instead of boys, boys get territorial, but if you set up a tank correctly, and get lucky with personalities, females can live together in the same tank.”

“Huh, so are you thinking of getting one?” Steve asked, and the final lap flashed on the screen, and Bucky remained focus on keeping his lead until some NPC shot a blue shell at him and Steve cheered as he took the lead again.

“Damn you Waluigi! What did I do to you?!” Bucky exclaimed.

“And Tony thinks I don’t understand technology,” Steve snickered and crossed the finish line while Bucky managed to scrape the fifth place, and the golden trophy celebrating Steve’s consecutive victory flashed on the screen.

“So, what’s the game plan?” Steve asked.

“Well, I’m headed to New York to spend the night at my sister’s place, maybe meet this mysterious boyfriend, fly out to Indiana, drive to Shelbyville and spend the day at Aunt Linda’s place with Mom and Dad, before we drive to Grand Uncle Barnes’ place and spend the rest of the vacation there.”

“Grand Uncle Barnes?” Steve asked, and Bucky nodded.

“My paternal grandfather died when my dad was seventeen, and we don’t really talk about him much, but his younger brother stepped up and bonded with Dad after Dad served, and Grand Uncle Barnes and his husband have been part of our family since."

"I thought your Grand Uncles lived in Indiana?"

"Their marriage is recognized in the state of New York, and the family."

"They sound awesome,” Steve muttered as he selected the next cup for them to race, or rather for Steve to add to his growing collection, Bucky might have discretely picked the one with Rainbow Road because if he was going to lose, he might as well lose with vindication.

Poor naive Steve didn’t even blink when he saw the Rainbow Road on the roster.

“They are,” Bucky agreed, remembering the soft hugs his Granduncle Arnie gave him, or the gentle understanding of Uncle Mikey. “Both taught me how to play cards, bet with chocolate, and have the best nautical-themed game room in the shed.”

Round one started and Bucky took the lead, with Steve close on his tail.

Then Bucky’s phone made the Facebook messenger notification, and Bucky ignored it in favor of his lead before Steve hit a prize block and surpassed him with a red mushroom.

Aunt Linda began harassing him on Facebook about how he missed the family Easter gathering, and he really should come back to Indiana for Christmas.

Bucky continued to ignore his aunt and instead retaliated being put in second place by tossing a banana peel in Steve’s path, and Steve deftly avoided it.

Stupid Super soldier reflexes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why, but the idea of Steve Rogers being good at MarioKart Wii amuses me...


	4. Christmas Gifts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm updating this chapter a little bit earlier than planned because I have something come up, so my next update will be on Thursday instead of tomorrow, if the chapter is a little bit rough it's because this chapter hadn't been beta read, so all mistakes are mine, and mine alone.  
> Next chapter should be fun.

December 25th dawned with Steve waking up early with a dawn run, arriving early enough to give the fish Christmas breakfast while Steve gently pushed Bucky’s present to the small artificial tree taking up twelve inches on top of the nearby bookshelf. The present was too big to put in the bookshelf, he left it on the floor, and sat back onto the sofa.

The banner was the first fish to catch Steve’s eye, the bright green betta flashed as Steve began to sketch his fins and posture as the little creature began to tend to his bubble nest.

Steve pulled out the colored pencils he got as a Christmas present from his new friend Sam, Steve gave him a book on falcons when Sam expressed a childhood interest in them.

Steve began shading and highlighting Banner’s green fins, his gills flared out in an impressive display of his strength.

When Steve was satisfied with his sketch, and Banner decided to wedge himself in his silk plants for a nap, Steve moved on to sketching Faraday’s unique coloration, and then Tesla as the picky eater nibbled on some freeze-dried snacks at the surface.

Steve was about ready to add in more details in Telsa’s doodle when he heard the faint rhythmic footsteps, and a surprised grunt as Bucky tried to unlock his already unlocked apartment door.

“Bucky?” Steve asked aloud.

“Christmas sucks,” Bucky announced before he flopped onto the sofa on the other side of Steve, then he laid there a few more moments, his voice muffled “So how’s your ankle?”

“I’ve been good,” Steve shrugged, then he sat in silence, he could feel Bucky’s tension like a taut bowstring, ready to snap. He reached and gently tried to pat him on the back and to show solidarity he avoided Bucky’s ass.

“Uncle Victor is a massive dick,” Bucky continued, “I spent all of Christmas eve tolerating that man, I was polite, I was patient, and he spent an hour calling me misguided because of my sexual orientation, to start.”

Steve blinked, he knew about homophobia, but with the way Bucky’s voice cracked, this was a year’s worth of frustration.

Steve just nodded as Bucky ranted, his uncle apparently had a lot to say about Bucky’s awesome haircut, his nice shirt that apparently wasn’t manly enough to wear in front of the family, Bucky’s lack of open devotion to a small church pastor that told Bucky he was bound to hell for breathing, and the last straw for the apparent lack of masculine pets. Bucky left the dinner table so his uncle shouted that his nephew was a child who needed to grow up.

“So why go?” Steve asked, and Bucky gave him a long-suffering look.

Steve was a child of a pair of Irish Immigrants who eloped to America against their parent’s wishes and thus were disowned by their extended families, so he had a feeling he was about to be subjected to a lecture about complex family politics.

“I tolerate the man because my grandmother loves him, and I love my grandmother, and when I miss certain family events, she worries about me.”

“And, how is she?” Steve asked.

“She was fine until Uncle Victor chased me out, I’m not allowed to punch him because he knows how to play the victim card, and he is friends with a lawyer, give him ten minutes and he’ll make it your fault to everyone around you.”

“He chased you?” Steve asked, confused and alarmed.

“More like I chose to remove myself, and turned off my cell phone before I resorted to violence.”

“That’s rather mature of you?” Steve said aloud. “I would have probably punched him when I was younger.”

“Hah, something tells me he’d swallow his own tongue if he heard that,” Bucky snapped bitterly. “He grew up reading the William Burnside run of your Captain America Comics, so he looked up to Captain America.”

Steve took a deep breath, Burnside was a man he apparently met on a mission to take down Hydra, but Burnside failed to make a lasting impression on Steve.

Apparently, Steve’s stubbornness, apparent patriotic duty, and zeal to take down Hydra left a strong impression on Burnside, who made a fortune writing Captain America Comics during the McCarthy Era as anti-communism propaganda.

Burnside died of old age before Steve could even think to sue him for defamation of character, Steve read those comics, Burnside’s version of him was a “red-blooded American good old boy” who hated anyone who wasn’t a straight white male capitalist.

Many of America’s conservatives tried to use Steve as their poster boy on issues, and Steve refused, and SHIELD backed him on that, but it looked more like Steve was staying politically neutral to remain professional.

Steve pulled his mind out of that rabbit hole and remembered what day it was.

“On a side note, I got you a Christmas present,” Steve deflected, looking at the wrapped box at the base of the bookcase, “I figured I’d leave it here for you to get when you got back, but well…”

“Now’s a good time,” Bucky agreed.

Steve carried to box over to him, and Bucky unwrapped it with smooth efficiency, the cheap fish themed Christmas wrapping paper remained undamaged, the tape smoothly split as Bucky pulled it apart.

“It’s a tank,” Bucky observed.

“Yeah, you’ll have to buy the rest, but I noticed you wanted to make a sorority tank,” Steve said sheepishly, “And the twenty-gallon tanks were on sale.”

“Thank you, Steve,” Bucky blushed, and passed a handful of a few books wrapped in similar wrapping paper, and Steve pulled it apart with a soldier’s efficiency and a miser’s care. “I ran out of time but I thought you’d like some of Tamora Pierce’s latest books, she wrote a crime serial.”

Steve grinned and looked at the titles of “Terrier”, “Bloodhound”, and “Mastiff”, “this should be fun.”

“Merry Christmas, Steve,” Bucky said with a grin.

Steve felt his face warm, and he was blown away about how sweet Bucky’s gift was, and Steve paused when he realized that his heart wanted a little more.

That wasn’t good.

Things got even worse five weeks later, a fish tank established, upgraded from a twenty gallon to a thirty when they got a surprised sixth fish in their order and wanted each fish to have five gallons to herself when Bucky had a mission go wrong.


	5. Just Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry it's been a few insane couples of days, and I have the next few chapters that will be ready in a couple of days. I had a few crazy things take up time for work, a personal emergency that took up three days I had planned for writing, shift changes, and I sadly had a betta fish pass away a few days ago, and he served as some inspiration for this fic, but good news is I only have one and a half chapters left to write and you guys will get to enjoy the fic.  
> Also, Check out the masterpost on tumblr for additional artwork done by esaael! You won't regret it!

Bucky blinked out the bright lights from his eyes and caught a glimpse of the assholes that captured him, and the fact that his mission had been compromised sank in.

Damn it, but he glanced around and squinted his eyes against the bright flashlights in his eyes.

Assholes.

He felt a prick on his arm and he jumped, trying to wrench his arm away from the source of pain, probably a needle, but his wrist protested when it hit the bindings keeping his arm in place.

His heart rate picked up, naturally produced adrenaline--from stress Bucky realized--so Bucky slowed his breathing a little until his heart settled.

“This truth serum will make you spill all your secrets, we need more information about a project you were a part of, Agent Barnes,” One of his captors snapped. “When the drug infiltrates your system you will be compelled to tell nothing but the truth.”

Bucky shivered, if that was true, that wasn’t good.

But Bucky knew there really wasn’t a truth serum, the only thing he heard of worked as a placebo, and if Bucky knew it was a placebo, well that wouldn’t work.

“What is your name?” His captor asked.

“You know who I am, it’s Agent Barnes,” Bucky said, pulling on his training, only say his name, rank, and serial number. “James Barnes, Sargent--”

The captor slapped him. A shock reverberated in his entire body when he regained his bearings, Bucky bit down a groan.

He really didn’t want to be tortured, and they wouldn’t get any useful information out of him, because he’d give them any bullshit and they’d probably buy it.

“What do you know that will persuade us from killing you?”

“I…” Bucky began, and briefly remembered his fish, “I have little mouths to feed.”

It’s true, all his betta fish had tiny mouths compared to his.

The captors paused, “What do you mean?”

“I have three boys, and a few little girls I’m paying support for.” Bucky began, close enough to the truth because he had three male Betta fish and six little females, and his paycheck goes to feeding and paying off the fish tanks.

If he kept it vague, well it wasn’t his fault if they jumped to the conclusion that Bucky was talking about human children.

“Where are they?” One of his captors caught the distraction, hopefully, Bucky could stall them, they didn’t seem bright enough to realize that Bucky had successfully distracted them with one sentence.

“At home with their sitter.”

It was true, he asked Steve to feed them because this mission would take him longer than normal.

“And they won’t come to rescue you?”

“The oldest two are three,” Bucky said, his voice cracked, playing the part of the worried father, which was true Faraday and Tesla were three years old, and Bucky got them after his first fish Darwin passed after living a few years. “What could they do?”

One of the minions shuffled uncomfortable, another cursed under his breath, “I don’t want anything to do with parents.”

Bucky shifted, acting like he was suppressing a shudder, he had to play this carefully, if he ran out of time, he wouldn’t be able to distract them for long, and if they got too impatient, they might actually kill him.

He twisted one of his arms carefully, feeling his thumb tuck under the bindings of his left wrist. He had to play this right and it needed to be timed correctly…

“You idiot,” the lead captor snapped at the uncomfortable goon, “he’s leading you on, and I can prove he’s faking it.”

Interesting, but it did prove that the truth serum was a placebo…

“Name your children!”

Bucky thanked his lucky stars that he did days of research before naming every fish of his but one. The minute he saw green little Bruce Banner Barnes, he knew what his name was automatically.

“Michael Faraday Barnes, Nikola Tesla Barnes, Bruce Banner Barnes, Ada Lo--” Bucky began rattling off the names of his pets.

“Enough!” The leader demanded, “He’s got to be lying, he had answers at the ready…”

“Sir, begging your pardon, but I don’t think he’s lying, I have friends with small children, and they often introduce their children with both first and middle names, my buddy’s baby momma named their eldest ‘Justin Bieber’ and we did give Barnes the truth serum…” one of the minions explained.

“There can be no way a man would have that many illegitimate children outside of a welfare scam, he’d wrap it up after the first one…” One argued, and when they were busy debating Bucky’s sexual responsibility for his nonexistent biological children, and none of them even bothered to check the legitimacy of his supposed “little ones”.

Their distraction was his gain, Bucky managed to free his left arm, and began to discreetly undo his right hand, and slowly undo his leg bindings, waiting for an opportunity to break out…

The door behind his captors swung open, and a flash bang rolled inside…

Bucky recognized the type and shut his eyes and looked away just in time, then he jumped up to strike.

***

After the latest mission debriefs, all Steve wanted was a hot shower to wash the slime off of the latest creature the Avengers had to fight, take a nap, and hang out with Bucky for a bit.

After Steve dropped Clint off at a safe house nearby and postponed the long-standing invitation of marathoning Dog Cops with him, Steve yawned so hard his jaws cracked, and decided to head home instead.

So, he trudged to his apartment to clean up, dodging Natasha’s latest matchmaking attempts over a text message.

It didn’t feel right for Steve to pursue any romantic relationships while he was trying to make sense of the little crush he developed on Bucky, especially as their casual relationship, sexual or not, wasn’t quite built for that kind of complex emotions.

Natasha sent an eyeroll emoji and said she had a list of people when he decided to stop being emotionally constipated.

Steve was tempted to set her up with his new running friend Sam but decided that he’d rather not mix up his work life with his personal life any more than he already did.

Bucky blurred the line in a lovely little grey area, but Bucky worked for a different division of SHIELD and his missions never mixed with Steve’s missions and they hung out only outside the clock.

Some days Steve forgot that Bucky Barnes was Agent Barnes, they kept that aspect of their friendship that far away from work.

After his shower, Steve glanced at the sketchbook, looking at the half finishes sketches he already fleshed out of the girls, the residents in Bucky’s new sorority tank. It was rather soothing watching the fish swim around the tank in a flurry of colors in a mini-soap opera.

Steve would admit he was pretty fond of all the fish, especially bright, bold, and golden Marie Curie, who seemed eager to follow his pencil every time he decided to sketch her and her sisters, and she seemed to recognize him before her “sisters” did, with the exception of Eileen Collins who was the first to deduce it was meal time and thus often got her portion first.

Bucky got a wide variety of colors so each of the girl bettas would be less likely to fight, all bettas were at some level aggressive, females were less so but they needed to have the right natural environment to stimulate that.

Female betta fish were also more likely to pick a fight with a female of the same or similar colorations. Bucky was also thrilled to get six different colored fish when the breeder sent him an extra by mistake.

Bucky paid for her on top of her adoptive sisters and watched the female fish make peace in what equated a six-sided Mexican standoff in a thirty gallon. Or like the Avengers shortly before they figured out how to work as a team.

There were still some bumps in the relationships, like how white with black speckles Ada Lovelace Barnes established a discarded siphon tube Bucky accidentally dropped as her favorite hidey-hole, and sky-blue Eileen Collins Barnes took over Ada’s abandoned floating log as hers before Ada would decide that the log was definitely hers.

Eileen, however, was smart enough to dart out of Ada’s territory in an endless cycle of keep away.

On the human side of things Steve and Tony hashed out some of their complicated feelings in Tony’s lab over an Isaac Asimov short story of all things and a plate Mediterranean food, peace eventually found its way into their dynamics.

Steve picked up his sketchbook and flipped it closed after looking at the doodles of Rachael Carson Barnes’ strange friendship with a pigeon on the fire escape.

There was another sketch of Rosalind Franklin Barnes’ unique method of conflict avoidance by diving under her thermometer or plants and swimming away from any tank squabbles. Steve captioned that doodle as “later suckas!”

So, Steve made his way to Bucky’s apartment when his phone beeped.

“Rogers,” Steve said as a greeting as he turned on his phone.

“Hey Steve, you know your friend Agent Barnes?” Natasha asked.

Steve blinked, and made a quick connection, his heart sinking, “What about Bucky?”

“He just got back from a rough mission, details are classified, but he’s okay, so I thought you might want to check up on him.”

“I’ll do that as soon as I can,” Steve said his stomach tightened a little with worry.

“Alright then, and remember what I said last week.”

Steve rolled his eyes, not another matchmaking attempt, and hung up.

Then Steve decided to text Bucky, make sure he’s okay.

Steve: Hey Buck, up for some company?

Three minutes later Steve got a response.

Bucky: sounds good, I have a guest over but there’s some stuff we’ll need to discuss for the fish.

Steve: Did Valentina jump out of the tank again?

Steve’s heart raced at the thought of the little fish who had a habit of leaping out of the water.

Like all of her kind, bettas can leap out of their current pond in the hopes of finding a better source of water. It was how the species dealt with dry seasons between the monsoon seasons of South East Asia. It was the main reason why all betta fish caretakers had to make sure to have a secure lid on top of the tank. Jumping out of a dwindling water source was great in the wild, dangerously risky but great, but tragic if it happened in captivity.

Females bettas were notorious for doing this the most, in the wild, the females were nomads while the males made nests and fiercely guarded their territories.

Valentina Tereshkova Barnes, like the Russian Cosmonaut she was named after, was the one who had this habit in spades, she even did it to snatch food out of her human’s fingertips if she saw an opening.

Bucky: No ‘Tina’s fine, it’s nothing bad, but I should be free at about five, does that work for you?

Steve: Yeah, see you then.

It was one in the afternoon, and now Steve was too wired for his well-deserved nap, so he decided to visit Sam at work, maybe grab some food if Sam hadn’t eaten yet.

Sam enjoyed his packed lunch while Steve ate from a few food trucks in the park closest to the VA during Sam’s brief lunch break.

***

When Steve arrived, Bucky was seeing a guest off.

“Thanks for having my six back there,” Bucky said, reaching out to grasp the stranger in a rather familiar hug.

“Any time, sweetheart, honestly I think you had it under control, my flashbang just sped up the process a little,” the stranger said with a salute and walked off with a slight swagger in his step.

“Bucky?” Steve asked, not fully sure what to make of the new development.

“Oh Steve, you made it, great, I got some good news!”

***

Bucky having a boyfriend simultaneously changed everything and nothing at all.

They still got to hang out, sometimes with Him tagging along and Steve declined a lot more invitations after feeling like a third wheel when the guy decided to turn Mario Kart into an attempt to swap saliva and a few dirty touches with Bucky like a pair of hormonal teenagers.

Steve put his controller down, texted Sam, and Sam called him making it sound like he was being summoned, so Steve could make his excuses and leave. The...Boyfriend certainly smirked at Steve a few times he left early, which Bucky called him out on it, claiming that he didn’t need to fight Steve off for his attention, he and Steve were just friends.

The benefits part of their relationship got scrapped when Bucky decided to go steady, which was fine, space gave Steve a chance to sort out his crush, and with time it would fade into something much healthier.

Steve also gave them space when he offered to watch the fish if Bucky would be unavailable to care for them. Bucky took him up on that on a few occasions where Bucky decided to go on weekend trips with his boyfriend.

During this six-month duration, Steve took Clint up on the Dog Cops marathon and lent Clint the books Bucky gave him for Christmas, which Clint enjoyed reading, but they came back smelling faintly of explosives, pizza, and wet dog.

Steve kept running with Sam, and after a mission with Natasha gone wrong, Steve, Sam, and Natasha took down Hydra as it started to crop back up again like a noxious weed.

Tony helped with a new program he and Bruce developed that was great at tracking down Hydra, sorting through Hydra data and with his help, rescued a few subjects after finding evidence that Hydra used the Mind Stone to persuade them to “volunteer” for some experiments in the hopes of stopping Sokovia’s civil war.

The Avengers were happy enough to offer two of the refugees’ asylum and a place to train their new powers. Clint, the one with the most experience with the Mind Stone, offered them a place to stay--Yes, a Real Farm Steve, not a weird slang term from your youth--at a farm of his.

Pietro enjoyed having all the space to practice his speedster abilities and Wanda felt safe in a place remote enough to not have any accidental casualties, and both wanted to join the Avengers when they felt they had enough control over their powers.

Steve even managed to talk Tony out of creating a “robotic shield” over the earth when he brought up a few historic examples of walls failing to keep invaders out. Then Steve gave Bruce support when Bruce pointed out that Clint and Erik Selvig’s experience with the Mind Stone proved that the alien stone might make the program unpredictable and hard to manage.

The Mind Stone’s inherent unpredictability was also proven when Tony found a clip of Erik Selvig running around the Stonehenge naked.

Erik Selvig’s brilliance was increased but remained unpredictable, but Steve had to admit the man knew how to rock a kilt now.

So, ULTRON was sent back to the drawing board and might act more like a cyber-security-guard AI to act as a bodyguard for JARVIS or something. JARVIS did voice approval at the idea of having a friend slash bodyguard.

After all chaos, it wasn’t that big a stretch to believe that Steve was taken by surprise when he heard gossip from Natasha of all people. She was a first-person source when she witnessed a huge fight between Bucky and his boyfriend in the cafeteria at SHIELD headquarters.

Bucky apparently threw his hands in the air and said that his now ex-boyfriend proved Bucky’s point by choosing to make this fight public and his pathetic attempts to make the crowd side with him before Bucky marched off with his moral high ground intact.

Natasha had sided with Bucky on the issue, but Steve didn’t care to remember what that issue was.

A week later after a mission, Steve got a phone call which ended his sexual dry spell and he walked out with a few orgasms, pizza, and a wedding invitation that he needed to get ready for in less than a month.

He called Tony for ideas since Tony had more experience at being invited to these kinds of events.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Zuko, rest in peace my spunky dear...


	6. Roommates

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience, I managed to give you guys an extra-long chapter to make up for the wait. If the change in the tags worries you, I'll give you guys some spoilers in the endnotes, but Steve and Bucky help one of his cousins out of a bad situation.
> 
> Please take care of yourself
> 
> Edit (10/21/2019): I rewrote parts of this chapter for better grammar flow and for a better ending of this chapter, and plus I realized while working on the next update that I had accidentally written some plot holes in this chapter that could have been avoided.

A few days before the wedding, Bucky got a phone call.

He was alone, which was unusual these past few days because he spent his spare time with Steve over, their heads pressed together to get all they needed for the wedding ready.

Steve was busy with his own friends, apparently getting ready for the wedding in his own way, With a few brief text messages, and apparently Steve had connections for the tuxedo rental for the wedding, which Bucky was pleased about, because he didn’t want to pay more for renting a tux, and Steve’s connections sounded like some discounts.

Bucky just told Steve that he looked best in dark red and black.

Twenty minutes Steve sent him a text message of a pair of matching tuxedos, Steve holding one with a light blue lapel with a matching burgundy lapeled jacket for what Bucky assumed was his tuxedo.

Bucky: Fancy, where’d you get it?

Steve: Tony got me a good discount, and we’re just renting yours

Bucky: I have a feeling there’s a story behind that sentence…

Steve: I already had one for events, but the place where I got mine rents extras so we match. ;D

Bucky: You are an amazing emotional support plus one XD

He paused in the middle of wrapping his wedding gift to Becca, his phone buzzing with his sister’s caller ID overtaking his earlier texting conversation with Steve.

“Becca?,” Bucky asked in greeting.

“Bucky, thank god, can you do me a favor?” Becca said, sounding way more rattled than usual, not surprising, her bridal shower was in two days, the wedding rehearsal was in three, she was getting married in four, and her brother wasn’t at the wedding venue to help her.

She was currently at the bed and breakfast her fiance’s family had apparently owned for several generations along with what might possibly be a country club?

Bucky already did a background check enough to know that Michael was a humble member of a family of old money, but was far enough in the apparent family succession that his family didn’t give too much of a damn about who he associated with. They certainly didn't complain when Michael picked a different company to work for than the one his family-owned so he could proudly say that he could make his own way in the world.

Of course, Bucky had made a few notes a few snobbish grandparents who might object during the wedding ceremony, but Bucky was ready to counter object for Becca’s happiness.

“Anything, Becca, what do you need? Your inlaws giving you trouble? Maggie’s deadbeat ex is sneaking in?” Bucky asked, thinking of how he could use his skills as a SHIELD Agent to make that last problem disappear.

Becca laughed, “Nothing that drastic, I need you to pick up GrandUncle Mikey and GrandUncle Arnold from the airport before you and Steve drive up to the venue before the rehearsal.”

“Wait, they aren’t coming with Mom and Dad?” Bucky asked.

“I need Mom and Dad here to help me with the wedding, which you should be coming up here to help too! The vases for the reception centerpieces aren’t in, so we might have to resort to little glass bowls, and I still need to reorganize the seating arrangement before Uncle Victor is forced to sit with Maggie and her family… God, I think her ex did RSVP, it’s too late to uninvite him, oh god this wedding is a mess and…”

“BECCA!” Bucky exclaimed, a little surprised that his sister with her usual “take no shit attitude” and normal unruffled demeanor was thrown off by the stress of planning her wedding. She immediately got quiet, so Bucky took the opportunity to help his sister remotely.

“Inhale one… two… three…. And out... two… three… four…” Bucky began using the old breathing exercise their mother made them utilize before baby Bucky or baby Becca had a tantrum at the supermarket or something when they were little.

Becca, thanks to a lifetime of training from Winnie, automatically obeyed the old instructions. When her breathing slowed, Bucky continued.

“Send the seating charts to me, if I can’t do it, Steve definitely can, he loves this kind of thing, and if vases don’t work, bowls might be an original change, what’s going in them?” He asked.

“It’s a surprise, but I told Michael about your fish, and his mom came up with the idea, I won’t tell you more and spoil the surprise, but I promise you’ll love them.” Becca insisted.

“I’ll leave that to you to decide then, and remember this is a party, and if people complain during your wedding, don’t bother sending them Christmas cards, family politics be damned.”

“I don’t understand how you deal with this so well Buck,” Becca sighed, shuddering at the immense pressure she felt.

“I don’t, that’s why I left early on Christmas last year to spend it with Steve.”

“I didn’t think you were dating Steve for that long,” Becca began.

“Steve and I have been friends for a long time,” Bucky answered, suddenly feeling awkward about the lie of omission, and decided to fess up. Bucky and Steve could still go as friends. “Becca…”

“I just find it so sweet, Michael and I were friends before we started dating, it’s really given us a really solid foundation, and I think we’re going to do really well,” Becca said and Bucky could hear her shuffle her phone a little. “It’s just hitting me, I’m marrying my best friend, and I’m not so scared anymore.”

Bucky held his breath, swallowed, and croaked, “That’s wonderful Becks, I’m really happy for you.”

“Thanks, Bucky, I gotta go, call Uncle Mikey for information about his landing time so you can pick them up when you’re on your way.”

“Okay Becca, I love you.”

“I love you too Bucky.”

When Bucky hung up, he noticed Steve sent him a few text messages, and Uncle Arnold apparently tried his hands at texting too, because he sent Bucky his and Uncle Mikey’s flight times for when they plan on landing in New York, so Bucky could swing by the airport on his way up from DC, pick them up at the airport, and make his way to the bed and breakfast the wedding was going to take place.

No sweat at all…

***

Steve was sweating in his seat.

Bucky was singing along to the radio, but his mediocre singing about being “Footloose” wasn’t the reason he was nervous, even if it didn’t help at all.

No the real reason he was nervous was during the long car ride from DC to upstate New York was because he was finally getting a chance to meet Bucky’s granduncles, his surrogate grandfathers if the stories were to be believed.

And Steve knew that Bucky loved them, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to think the same wouldn’t be reciprocated.

Besides Becca, which Steve wasn’t sure that counted because he was naked when she barged into Bucky’s place, the grand uncles would be the first members of Bucky’s family Steve would be meeting.

Steve was sure that they probably heard as much G-rated, PG-13 at the worst, about him as he’s heard about them.

Steve glanced at the back of the car where their luggage was arranged, and Steve forwarded the diagrams he finalized to Becca, who was frantic in getting her big day together before the wedding rehearsal.

Luckily she had help, with her parents and the groom’s parents, and the wedding planner they hired.

When he was sure it was sent, he turned off the mobile wifi and VPN and shut down the tablet to put it away, he was too nervous to read any of the ebooks on it.

Bruce Banner, the Avenger not the fish, sent Steve and Bucky an update text message, telling them that he arrived at Bucky's place, and sent them a Selfie he took with him meditating on the windowsill next to the sorority tank, with a very zen look on his face.

Bucky finished the last cords of the song, and Steve was a little pleased about that, he liked Bucky a lot, but singing was not Bucky’s strong point.

Another song went on the radio as Bucky began to look for the exit to take them to the airport. Bucky began humming along to the radio as they approached the parking lot.

“Steve, it's okay, these are the nice relatives."

"I'm fine," Steve said reassuringly, and they got out of the pickup parking lot to meet Bucky's granduncles at the baggage claim.

There Bucky lead them to a thinner older man who looked vaguely like Bucky, and the man pulled Bucky into a tight hug before grinning at Steve with his hand outstretched "call me Mike, my beloved spouse creature is in the bathroom but he'll be right out."

"Nice to meet you, I am S--" Steve began before a creaking voice cut him off.

"Steven Grant Rogers you little Irish punk, what the hell are you doing here!"

It couldn't be…

Steve spun around, and it was almost like looking at a ghost.

Silvery white hair dusted around the side of his head, while a few whips combed over the top of what was once a full head of thick black hair. What was once a fit young man from Brooklyn stood a larger softer man whose eyes were still twinkling with old mischief.

He was dressed like he was on a long flight in some comfortable sweats.

“Arnie?” Steve asked, almost not believing his eyes, “But your ship went down in the pacific…”

“And imagine my surprise after Mickey and I were rescued and I find out that you crashed a plane in the Arctic,” Arnie said with false sternness before he walked over to the group. “I’m guessing my exaggerated death is the reason why you never called?”

Weakly, Steve nodded before gently pulling his childhood friend into a hug, not trusting himself not to say something stupid.

“Hug me like you mean it Rogers, or I’m gonna think you don’t.”

Behind him, Steve could hear Bucky’s GrandUncle Mikey as he cleared his throat, “So James, you didn’t tell me you were dating my husband’s childhood friend…”

“Michael darling, don’t make this weird, Stevie is good people, just an idiot who took a decades-long nap in an iceberg,” Arine said pulling back from the hug.

“I don’t have to put up with this,” Steve said warningly.

“Indeed you don’t,” Arnie said with a raised eyebrow, his wrinkled spotted hands clutching his suitcase handle as if it were a dog on a leash that would take off at first chance, “but I happen to know you’re the kind of man who wouldn’t abandon my grandnephew to the tender mercies of a wedding crazed family.”

“You make it sound like we’re walking into piranha-infested water,” Bucky protested with a snort.

“Not quite, we’ll need to strap a dead fish on to Steve to make it accurate,” Uncle Mikey said, glancing at Steve with a snort.

“In any case we’ll leave Steve’s protection to you, James,” Arnie said and then turned to the door, “Now let’s pack into James’ car, grab some grub, and get this show on the road, I’m not as young as I used to be and I’d like to be at the wedding venue before I crash for my afternoon nap.”

Steve reached for the suitcases, but the two older gentlemen took the matching suitcases with them before Steve could offer, causing him and Bucky to follow in their wake before Bucky could lead them to the spot the car parked, and Uncle Mikey thanked Bucky for parking so close to the building and taking mercy on their old bones.

They piled into the car, Steve taking the initiative to load their luggage into the car’s trunk, but Steve suspected that’s what Arine wanted, because his suitcase was heavy, even to Steve’s standards.

When Steve reached his seat in the front, he saw his old friend holding his husband’s hand in the back seats of Bucky’s car, and smiled softly despite himself, he was relieved his friend not only survived the war but appeared to find the strength to thrive at some point after it.

Bucky turned on the ignition and drove the car back on to the highway for the few hour drive to the bed and breakfast upstate.

“So what have you been up to after all these years Arnie?” Steve asked.

Arnie grinned at Mikey before he turned to Steve. “Well, I met my best guy when we were stationed on the same ship, and we survived the shipwreck after some Japanese ships sank it, and wound up washing up on an island,” Arnie began.

“Don’t let the movies fool you, that island was no paradise, and we barely managed to forage enough food to survive long enough to get rescue, Arnie here got as skinny as this little Irish Punk from Brooklyn he kept talking about,” Mikey continued, “before the ship sank, I was convinced that Steve was Arnie’s sweetheart, until you sent him a few letters about this ‘Peggy Carter’ of yours…”

“I’m Bi sir,” Steve said to reassure Bucky’s granduncle, but the man snorted and gestured Steve to be quiet.

“Bah, of course, you are either bi or pan, my Bucky here is too smart to get himself mixed in as a straight man’s gay side dish.”

“GrandUncle Mikey!” Bucky protested, and Steve realized he was blushing, either a pleased blush at the compliment, at the crude implication, or the indignation on Steve’s behalf at the idea that Steve was using Bucky as a sexual experiment.

“As I was saying,” Arnie sniffed, determined to tell the story, “I kept in touch with Michael after the war ended, but Brooklyn just wasn’t the same after you went down, and I drifted for a few months before I decided to take a gamble, and Michael asked to move in. I told the neighbors I was helping an old war buddy of mine get back on his feet after the war and we even put a lot of his things in my guest room to make it appear like he was sleeping there.”

“Sometimes we did sleep in there,” Mikey added, “for added effect.”

“How did your parents deal with that?” Steve asked, while Mr. and Mrs. Roth were very good people, Steve had read that after the war, the governments grew increasingly insecure in the rise in Communism in Europe, and the resulting culture led to increased paranoia, intolerance, and increased bigotry against many minorities, including a massive years-long crackdown on arresting the members of the LBGT community.

“They were confused for a while, thinking that encouraging me to get married and settle down would do me some good, so I danced and danced, and eventually they gave up,” Arnie said sadly, “I think they knew, but never said anything.”

“I think it was also because I was there, they could tell I was as all-American as Steve here, and your dad mentioned something about how the Roths weren’t ones to befall blackmail.”

“What?” Bucky asked.

“It was this belief after the war that gay men were more likely to be blackmailed by Soviet spies in to giving in information or risk being jailed at best because they were gay,” Arnie explained gently, “Which is why I was thankful you were born when you were, and that we were there to protect you when we could.”

“I remember, you cried and took me out to ice cream when I came out to you two,” Bucky said, but Steve could see his eyes were dewy and decided to respect Bucky’s privacy by keeping his eyes on the road.

“We’re still proud, so very proud of you James,” Mikey reassured him from his spot in the backseat of the car.

“I ate so much rocky road I threw up,” Bucky quipped, breaking the intense cloud of silent pride, and the car burst into giggles.

“Not my brightest grandfather moment I’ll give you that one James,” Mikey sighed.

Bucky laughed, and they traveled in silence for a little while longer, before Bucky grew bored, turned on the radio, and then began singing again.

Steve took a deep breath and froze when he realized Bucky was singing a duet, and that it wasn’t Mikey Barnes who taught Bucky Barnes how to sing.

Steve took a deep breath and looked out the window to wait out the singing.

A few hours later Steve was a little relieved when Bucky exited the highway to drive down a country road to the Proctor Family Bed and Breakfast.

His ears were ready for a break.

Bucky pulled in to a spot in the parking lot, and Steve got out quickly to help the elderly characters carry in their bags with Bucky, and a group of people swarmed Bucky and his granduncles, so Steve carried the rest of the bags in, avoiding attention as he walked over to the front desk to check-in.

After handing the bags to the bellhop, and grabbing the keys to his and Bucky’s room, Steve turned to give Bucky the keys when he heard a man and a woman yell, and what sounded like a child crying.

***

“James, you made it,” Winnie Barnes exclaimed, and with joy pulled her eldest child and only son into a tight hug. Bucky returned it and relished in her warmth a little, he hadn’t had a chance to see her since Christmas, and it was only June.

“Thanks, Mom, it’s good to see you,” Bucky said with a grin.

“So where’s this mysterious boyfriend of yours?” Becca asked, maneuvering her way forward.

Bucky could see faint dark circles under her eyes, but he saw enough facebook pictures of his sister’s bachelorette party to know it was a much-needed break.

“Steve’s checking us in, and you’ll get a chance to get to know him better during dinner,” Bucky said reassuring his mother and sister.

“Good, the rehearsal is in two hours, so you’ll have plenty of time to unpack, and Aunt Linda reserved the rooms, so I think you two get to share,” Becca said speaking fast before glancing at her phone, “I gotta go, we got the pots for the peace lilies and the tulle needs to be attached to them, Mom?”

“I got it sweetie, and remember everything will be ready after the rehearsal,” Winnie said in the same no-nonsense manner her daughter used, gesturing her to head off.

When Becca ran off, George Barnes approached to hug his son.

“Becca’s finally taking a break?” He asked his wife over Bucky’s shoulder.

“Oh my god, Dad, really?” Bucky rolled his eyes, it wasn’t that his dad was ignoring him, Bucky had learned when he was a child that his father liked to multitask, hugging Bucky while talking about Becca’s needs was his idea of being a good dad, like the memorable day where Becca learned her big brother was gay while her father was trying to encourage his Uncles to talk to Bucky about his confusing self-discovery on the phone while he was braiding her hair for a school play.

Needless to say, Bucky gave all his fish his undivided attention when he tended to each of their needs.

Bucky couldn’t see his mother’s reaction, but she was tactful enough to wrap herself around her husband and son after nodding behind Bucky’s back, so Bucky could have the illusion he was an only child.

Bucky stopped hugging his parents, and it took them thirty seconds to stop basking in his warmth, trying to spend as much time as if they were dried sponges trying to absorb all the affection he had to offer.

“Mom, Dad, I’m fine, I need to introduce you guys to Steve, and don’t you want to say hi to GrandUncle Mikey and Arnie?” Bucky asked.

“No need James,” Arnie said as he approached, “You might want to go fetch Steve, he has a habit of finding trouble if you don’t.”

“I’m sure Steve is a fully capable adult, Granduncle Arnie,” Bucky protested.

“He is, but he can’t resist fighting off an injustice when he sees one, and he’s good at sniffing those out,” Arnie said with a nod.

“How do you know that?” George asked his uncle in a confused tone.

“I’ve known Steve’s family since he was six,” Arnie just said cryptically, “His mother was a widow, and she once fought off an intruder with a cast iron frying pan when Steve was eight, and Steve has always idolized her.”

“In that case, James, you might want to go fetch him.”

Bucky rolled his eyes, but then his cousin Maggie burst out of the Bed and Breakfast door in hysterics, her two-year-old son screaming, her seven-year-old daughter close behind looking startled.

“Uncle George, Aunt Winnie, we need to call the cops,” She said alarmed, “Beau is here!”

Maggie was on Bucky’s mother’s side of the family, and his mother was quick to pull out her phone.

“That’s the first time he broke the restraining order,” Winnie muttered angrily, but she still placed a gentle hand on her niece's shoulder reassuringly, “We’ve got this sweetie.”

“Where is he?” Bucky demanded, reaching into his wallet to pull out his SHIELD Badge and a pair of sunglasses, slipping into dangerous SHIELD Agent persona, maybe now Bucky could arrest the bastard before he hurt Maggie and her family.

Bucky wasn’t as close to Maggie as they were when they were kids, with Maggie being six years younger than Bucky, but Bucky tried to chase off any unwanted boyfriends when Maggie’s dating went sour, it was even worse because her mother kept pushing her to go back to her high school sweetheart Beau.

“How did Beau know where to go?” Bucky asked bewildered, Maggie’s lips quivered.

“He called Mom, and Mom picked him up,” She whispered brokenly, and when her son burst into fresh tears, she shushed him.

“There there Harrison, Mommy’s gonna fix this,” she whispered, carefully pulling her son’s teary face to her collar bone tenderly, and George gently pulled Tegan into a protective hug.

Beau was a piece of work, one who never grew up after he dumped Maggie when their eldest child Tegan was born but moved back in with Maggie to live off her paycheck when he realized that he was expected to pay child support otherwise, charming Maggie’s mother while crawling back into Maggie’s bed.

“Maggie, darling, I love your mother, but I seriously want to smack her, enough is enough, hello 911? I’d like to report a crime, we have a man who broke a restraining order…” Bucky’s mother said keeping an eye out for Beau, who didn’t appear to come from the building.

Aunt Linda refused to talk to her daughter about the progressively worse treatment with her ex-boyfriend, claiming it’s Maggie’s karma and lack of nurturing nature that made Beau act out, and that a marriage would be the kind of thing that would save them.

She was convinced that being a parent granted people supernatural powers, like sudden empathy and kindness, like fathering a child would magically make a man ten times gentler and patient.

Maggie burst into tears, and Tegan looked at George solemnly.

“Grandma told Mommy she made her bed and she should sleep in it, but I don’t like it when Daddy’s over,” She told George sadly.

“You’re grandma’s wrong, your mommy is right in deciding who she should have come over or not,” George told her firmly.

Bucky glanced around, noticing that Aunt Linda wasn’t present, but his phone buzzed, and it was a facebook notification, judging from the ring tone.

It didn’t help that was all that she posted on her facebook posts, and she sometimes would share with him articles from feel good conservative magazines of gay men suddenly saved by the right woman who gave them five kids etc...etc… All while mentioning nothing about the women themselves other than their supposed prowess in bed and child making/rearing, it was enough to make Bucky want to vomit.

Bucky did unfriend her once, and she called up his mother in the middle of the night for months until his mother begged him to re-friend her again. Because he loved his mother and didn’t want to be the barrier between her and her little sister, he re-friended Aunt Linda.

His Sanity was saved by silencing her posts, then logged off Facebook for months at a time.

Maybe arresting her golden man-child Beau might be the perfect atomic bomb to make Aunt Linda disown him and leave him the fuck alone.

Bucky glanced nervously at the direction Maggie came from, Beau still missing, and then Bucky realized Steve was missing, and GrandUncle Arnie raised his eyebrows and gestured his head toward the building.

Bucky rushed into the building while his parents and granduncles turned around to calm the crying children.

The Front Desk was empty, and Bucky made a quick scan, the receptionist was in the back, the bed and breakfast walls looked like an old country home, only without any floral designs and he could hear shouting and arrived just in time to see Beau in his wife beater and baggy oversized pants rush out the door while pursued by a very familiar ass.

So Bucky followed after them, down the hall with the blue walls and green carpet, hearing Beau’s heavy panting--probably spent most of his days playing nothing but Call of Duty, watching football, and making crude comments on youtube, Maggie complained about how he refused to watch the kids while she was at work, so wasn’t afraid to tell Bucky all of her ex boyfriend's receipts before she kicked him out.

Bucky caught a glimpse of Steve jumping over a table with the grace of a panther or a dancer, the barrier between him and the exit in the bed and breakfast’s kitchens was meaningless to him.

Beau was an idiot because he didn’t realize he was being chased by Captain America, and Beau’s fat ass wasn’t strong enough to climb over a waist-high picket fence without being caught by Captain America and his SHIELD Agent plus one.

Bucky managed to catch up to them in the small field between the dumpster and the woods outback. Beau scrambled a few feet from them before Steve managed to cut him off and pin him down.

“Get off of me, I’m an American Patriot, you can’t do this to me!” Beau cried as he wiggles fruitlessly before he turned to Bucky and froze before he snarled, “I know you, you’re that bitch’s faggot cousin!”

“Language!” Steve exclaimed, “And you have the right to remain silent.”

“Wait, you look a lot like Captain America…” Beau began twisting around to get a good look at Steve, while Bucky pinned his legs down to keep him from being kicked.

“That’s because I’m Captain Steve Rogers,” Steve said, flashing his Avenges ID at Beau, only for the man to sit there in astounded terror until the police arrived.

Maggie took her children to their room to calm them down, Harrison likely going to take a nap until after the rehearsal.

Steve sat in the pews with GrandUncle Mikey and Arnie while Bucky stood with Becca’s bridesmaids, his missions making him too busy to take up the traditional role as the man of honor for Becca. His father got teary-eyed when he practiced escorting Becca down the aisle in her business casual vest, slacks, and button-up.

Bucky had a feeling his father wasn’t going to be able to keep his cool when Becca gets married for real tomorrow, he knew his own smile was a little watery as Becca and her fiance Michael Proctor began to give each other their vows.

After the priest gave the practiced version of the ritual before the wedding planner directed everyone to a bunch of cars to drive off to a Chinese restaurant for the rehearsal dinner.

***

Steve sat awkwardly between Bucky and his mother, with Arnie across the table from him while he maneuvered the chopsticks to pick up and eat the potstickers on his plate, one of the last courses he got to try after enjoying some of the other dishes the restaurant was happy to provide the wedding party.

Down the table sat a small brittle looking woman who kept glaring daggers, hair dyed an uncanny shade of color that to Steve’s artistic eye, unfortunately, made her skin look shallow and green. Steve and Bucky were the favorite targets of such intense glares, emphasizing her false eyelashes peeling off at the corners, and her cheekbones were so prominent Steve was worried the woman was a victim of famine.

Steve felt a piece of rice flick onto the side of his face and turned his attention to a little girl in a red dress, and Steve recognized her as Tegan, Maggie's daughter.

"Uh... Hi, please don't flick food at people..." Steve began gently.

"Are you married? Mommy says your not, but she says it's rude to ask."

"It is, and I'm not married, but I'm with Bucky...I mean your Uncle James. Because I like him a lot."

Bucky snickered into his napkin.

"Grandma says that's not possible, boys marry girls, and girls marry boys," Tegan pressed, glancing at her mother and back at Steve. "Are you going to marry my mommy?"

Steve could feel Bucky choking and Steve looked Tegan in the eye.

"First of all, I don't know your mommy that well, I arrested that man because he was yelling mean things and threatened to hurt you guys, and I was raised to always do the right thing. Second, Boy can marry boys and girls can marry girls, and I am here as your Uncle Bucky's date to your Aunt Becca's wedding," Steve explained, putting his hand on Bucky's shoulder in solidarity.

Tegan looked at him, blinked then after some momentary consideration shrugged. "Okay, I'll tell Mommy she doesn't need to throw the potstickers away because you don't like-like girls like you like-like Uncle Bucky," and then the seven-year-old skipped off and Steve watched in quiet bewilderment.

“What was that about?” Becca asked them from the other side of Winnie.

“Steve and Bucky arrested Beau, and Maggie got her sights set on my son’s boyfriend,” Winnie said bluntly.

“Oh no, not this drama again,” Becca sighed, “Still, kudos for giving me a good reason to get Beau out of my wedding guest list, what did he get arrested for?”

Bucky chuckled, “Well Maggie had enough self-respect to file a restraining order against him, and he chose to ignore it, so that might be a contempt of court on top of all that.”

Steve sighed and added, “According to the officers who arrived, he also has a standing warrant for drug dealing 100 feet from a school, selling to minors some pretty nasty stuff, and he called Bucky and Maggie some pretty nasty stuff, so he’s going away for a while.”

“The moment Steve showed him his ID was priceless,” Bucky laughed, and Steve noticed that if looks could kill the skeletal lady would likely stop Bucky’s heart by the sheer power of her fury, “I think he might have been a fan of those comics Steve was in.”

Steve groaned, “ is it too late to sue William Burnside?”

Arnie snickered from across the table, “Yes, my dear Steven, it is too late to sue a man who made some unflattering comics about you in the 1950s.”

“Thanks, Arnie, you’re a real pal,” Steve grumbled sarcastically.

“Well, it’s about to get late, and the ceremony starts really early so I think it’s time for bed for we old-timers,” Arnie said, getting up and his husband got up at the same time, holding his hand out for him. “I for one look forward to those fancy beds our hotel place provides.”

“Oh my god, Uncle Arnie!” George Barnes protested.

“Oh get your mind out of the gutter, George,” Mikey chided his nephew, “We are old and like to see how those fancy pillowy down quilts will feel on these old joints, James, Steven, will you escort us back?”

“Of course,” Bucky said, getting up, Steve followed suit, and walked around the table to pull the chairs back for Arnie and Mikey, escorting the men out of the restaurant and back to Bucky’s car.

Then a very interesting thought struck him.

They were headed to a Bed and Breakfast.

Which meant hotel beds, and from all the hotels in the 21st Century that Steve had staked out in, they often had only one or two beds.

This wasn’t a problem for SHIELD missions, Steve slept in shifts with his teammates, so someone was always awake and alert… But, the bed and breakfast were small enough that there would only be one bed in the room he was sharing with Bucky.

Steve’s heart fluttered.

He and Bucky were still sex friends, but staying the night was one rule they established when they began sleeping together.

They’d head over to the other person’s apartment (mostly Bucky’s because it was closer to the gym), fuck in all they ways the desired.

Some nights would end with Steve heading home in a walk of no shame, or they would have Pizza and movies while they regained their spent energy.

But Steve never stayed longer than a few hours and would return back to his place in the dead of night.

“Steve? Do you want to pick the radio station?” Bucky asked, pulling Steve’s attention away from his frantic musings, and Steve nodded.

“Sure thing Buck,” Steve reached forward and turned on the radio.

Of course, Steve’s thoughts about his and Bucky’s Sleeping Situation was brought back up when the song lyrics were about how the singer didn’t want to fall asleep because he didn't “want to miss a thing!”

So Steve would be aware of every breath, every shift, and the intense body heat Bucky would produce. He would learn if Bucky snored, talked in his sleep, or ground his teeth when out like a light, and Steve realized he’d lay there paralyzed and awake in the dark, experiencing everything sleeping Bucky did.

Sharing a bed with Bucky would mean that Bucky would get to see and experience, and probably get a read on Steve’s unrequited crush on him.

But… would that be such a bad thing?

Sharing a bed with Bucky might not be all bad, after the excitement of arresting that criminal, he saw a fiery glint in Bucky’s eyes, the kind that meant that Steve got the fucking of a lifetime later… perhaps they’ll get some quick sex out of their situation, and once sated, sleep so soundly that sharing a bed would only serve as a convenience than a hindrance.

Steve’s dick twitched at the mental image of the two sharing a bed, their hot and heavy bodies moving in unison, Bucky whispering dirty sweet nothings in mandrin in Steve’s ear.

“Scooch over honey, you’re falling asleep on me.”

Steve glanced back, and saw Arnie wiggle in the backseat, gently coaxing his husband’s shoulder to lay his head on it.

Steve froze.

Now wasn’t the time to get caught up in sexual fantasies.

Bucky pulled up to the Proctor Family Bed and Breakfast and held his hand out to Steve.

He handed Bucky a set of their room keys before they escorted Arnie and Mikey to their room, and proceeded to head to their room.

One glance into the room was enough to make Steve freeze in his tracks.

“I claim the one by the window!” Bucky whispered excitedly before rushing in. Bucky dropped his luggage to the side and leaped onto the small twin sized bed by the window.

Well, there went that plan...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers! Please take care of yourself!
> 
> First Steve is pleased to discover that his friend Arnie Roth (he's from the comics) survived world war 2 and survived the intervening century while dealing with period typical homophobia of the 50s, 60s, and implied for the test of the 20th century.
> 
> Then one of Bucky's cousins and her two children get an off-camera encounter with her ex-boyfriend who violates his restraining order and had made some unspecified threats within hearing distance of Steve. Bucky's cousin takes her children to a safe place while Steve and Bucky arrest him, turns out he's a real piece of work because he has a standing warrant and the police arrest him off-camera.
> 
> After the wedding rehearsal Bucky's Cousin's daughter walks up to Steve to ask him if he's single, Steve politely explains he's with Bucky, and the kid parrots some naive homophobia she picked up from her elders, but Steve gently explains to her that same-sex relationships are normal and the kid simply accepts Steve's explanation and goes back to her dinner.


	7. Lovers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally end the slow burn, the wedding, and epilogue to follow...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where have I been? Real life has been an insane rollercoaster. Like three moves and three jobs kinda crazy but things finally settled down.  
> So you guys get a larger update than usual to compensate! Enjoy!

Bucky woke up early.

Some nights when Bucky was sleeping in a new place, he slept poorly unless he was on a mission. But not last night apparently.

Bucky tucked himself deeper in the quilted blankets of the bed, turning toward the window, his inner sniper already glancing around the sightlines. Bucky didn’t see any potential places for enemy agents to hide, other than a few distant trees and expansive fields of carefully manicured grass of the distant golf course.

In the distance, a herd of deer does and a few fawns were chewing on their cud under the shade of a distant tree, and a coyote stalking around the edges before it pounced on something small.

Steve grunted in his sleep, and Bucky turned to see the other bed.

Bucky bit his lower lip to keep himself from bursting into giggles, Steve wasn’t there, but instead was a giant blanket burrito, a white and green quilt with a small tuft of blond hair peeking out at one end, and a wool sock toe out the other.

Steve rarely slept in Bucky’s presence, so Bucky was surprised to see him all bundled up like that.

It made sense though, Steve mentioned he grew up in cold tenements as a kid, and his mom worked hard day and night to keep food on the table and rent paid. Steve even mentioned once that their stove was the main source of heat in the entire household, and sometimes during the winter they had to save money on coal, so Steve had to deal with the cold.

To fight off a frequent chill, Steve piled on layers of clothing and shared his mother’s quilt. Sarah Rogers brought the quilt with her from the Old Country, a coming of age gift that her mother made for her before Sarah eloped to America with Joseph.

When Steve left for the War, a few moths had chewed tiny holes on the quilt before he went down in the ice, and the neighbor he left it to care for it had to carefully stitch holes closed. His mother’s quilt was now preserved and stored in the vaults in the Smithsonian. Steve didn’t have the heart to remove it from its vault and left it’s maintenance to professionals.

That side of Steve was one Bucky had rarely seen, and the side the museums and newspapers tended to focus on, the man from the War, the man outta time. Bucky got reminders now and then from Steve that he was born from another time, but the Steve Bucky knew, was more than the proud leader, he was also playful, strong, sassy, stubborn man who knew how to use his mouth for more than speeches.

Bucky shivered as he remembered the last time he let that fantastic mouth on him, it had Bucky writhing on the floor like Janet Wiess in Rocky Horror Picture Show as she was begging Rocky to “toucha-touch” her.

Steve could really hold his breath, suck so hard Bucky whited out while he orgasmed, and knew the places Steve could playfully nip to make Bucky squeak.

Or how when Steve got super excited at the dirty ways Bucky promised to do to him in Mandarin, and the world would never know that an excited Steve would start swearing like he was back in World War Two, using the word “Fuck” as a prefix to any noun.

Then there was the time where Steve and Bucky binge-watched a few pirate movies mostly Errol Flynn movies, but Bucky did show him the Pirate of the Caribbean Franchise. They got into a serious debate about what movie roles Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly played in their previous movies were the best. Both agreed Keria Knightly made an amazing Elisabeth Bennet, but Steve, the Tolkien fanboy he was, insisted that Orlando Bloom’s Legolas was the best, the fool. It got debated so heavily they decided to solve it like gentlemen, with a dick fencing duel. Complete with pirate hats and nothing else.

Two orgasms later they forgot who they were arguing about and Elisabeth Swan was wishing her husband Will Turner goodbye as he had to return to the Flying Dutch Man.

Then, freshly showered, satiated, and feeling vindicated about a point not made, Bucky slept like a baby after Steve went home.

Then Bucky paused, his attention brought back to the present and the sleeping Captain Burrito in front of him, both of them slept the whole night through without any periods of sleeplessness and nightmares.

Quite the opposite of how they met when both were up because of bad nightmares and came to the gym to work out their anxieties. Now, Bucky had a much better grip on his insomnia.

Honestly, his insomnia almost came back until he called Steve back after Bucky broke up with his now ex-boyfriend.

Bucky frowned at the thought of Him and rolled over in irritation.

Sure the guy swept Bucky off of his feet from the time they met and during the honeymoon phase of their dating period, with Bucky having to adjust to weird quirks like how the man refused to hold Bucky’s hand in public, citing that Bucky’s hand would remind Him of his mother and her tight grip and sweaty hands when He was a child.

Then there were moments where He would start arguments in public and whine about how unreasonable Bucky was being, which after the third argument in public, Bucky realized He was doing it intentionally, and Bucky called it quits right then and there.

Also, Bucky didn’t like how that final argument was about his friendship with Steve, almost as if the guy felt threatened by Steve’s very presence.

It was ironic and almost funny, his fuck buddy made better boyfriend material than his own ex-boyfriend.

Wait….

What?!

Bucky stared at the drapery in front of him, ignoring the morning light seeping in from outside. It was cream-colored and had lacy roses and Bucky’s mind was whirling.

Steve didn’t expect Bucky to bend over backwards just to please him, if he had a problem, he’d talk to Bucky, and they would work out a compromise, or Steve would let Bucky make his own choice and back off. This rarely happened, but Bucky appreciated that aspect of their friendship immensely. Besides, Bucky was often inspired to be a better person by Steve’s stubborn example.

But, Steve would have said something if he was interested in Bucky that way, wouldn’t he?

Hell, Steve always told the truth, he was proud of that. If Steve was interested in seeing Bucky on a more than sex-friends basis he would have said something before Bucky went out with his ex...

And there was Steve’s romance with Peggy during the War, and Bucky read about her, and briefly met her when he was a tiny little baby Agent and he was so blown away by her wit and intelligence that he realized that nobody would ever compete with Margaret Carter. She was busy and didn’t directly talk to him, so Bucky doubted she’d know who he even was.

And Bucky heard the phrase “Nobody can replace Peggy Carter” in several contexts.

And it hadn’t been that long since Bucy broke up with his Ex, what if his crush on Steve was just his loneliness latching on the first decent guy willing to sleep with him after the disaster that was his last relationship.

Steve didn’t need to be anyone’s rebound.

Bucky’s stomach tightened and then began to sink like a small ball of twisted lead.

He prided himself on being a good friend, and he’d have to content himself with that.

Before Bucky could come up with ways to distance himself without hurting Steve in the process, his thoughts were interrupted by a series of rapid knocks on the room door.

Bucky was on his feet in seconds, he knew that knocking pattern.

Steve snapped awake too, blankets cascading from his shoulders to his waist, and both paused for a second to take in their states of dress.

Both men were in their underwear, and not fit to greet anyone.

Bucky scrambled to his feet, reaching for yesterday’s pants and pulled them on as he scrambled to the door. Steve ducked into the room’s bathroom to preserve his modesty, and Bucky was reminded of that afternoon where Becca barged into his place instead of the pizza guy.

When Bucky landed on his feet he felt the bed move behind him, but the continued knocking made Bucky put it out of his mind, in a hurry.

“I’m coming!” Bucky called as he rushed to the door, and opened it.

Granduncle Arnie raised his eyebrow when he saw Bucky’s shirtless state, but for once had the grace not to say anything. “Now that you boys are up, how about some breakfast?”

“Sounds great, uh, we’ll be ready in a few minutes,” Bucky agreed and stepped back to the room, Steve popped out of the bathroom shirtless, but mercifully wearing pants. As Steve got near him, Bucky could smell toothpaste and Bucky’s eyes flew to Steve’s neatly combed hair. Bucky had no idea how Steve managed to do it so quickly.

“So, food?” Bucky asked awkwardly, trying desperately to avoid eye contact, as if Steve didn’t hear Arnie through the bathroom door.

“On it,” Steve said jauntily, clearly not noticing Bucky’s awkwardness, heading straight for his suitcase.

Bucky’s traitorous eyes couldn’t help but comb-over Steve’s familiar sculpted ass and back, or the width of his shoulders. He yanked them away like tugging off a bandage from a scab, and it stung like it too.

What was wrong with him? He needed to treat Steve like he did before his stupid epiphany, and not like Steve was 100% grade-A beef, or well not like that on the morning before his sister’s wedding.

A flash of color caught Bucky’s attention and he seized on the distraction.

“Where did you get that shirt?” Bucky asked.

“Is there something wrong with flannel?” Steve asked, the rich blue and green plaid pattern brought out the shade of Steve’s eyes while the tight white tee shirt underneath made Bucky’s eyes follow the familiar sculpted pecs.

“Nope, j-just wondering where I could find one,” Bucky asked.

“You’ll have to ask Natasha, she’s the one who got it, said I was dressing too much like a grandpa and it was just and I quote ‘too damn depressing’.”

Goddamn you, Romanoff… Now not only was Bucky fantazing yanking that shirt off Steve to fuck him senseless, but then the next morning at the kitchen table with hot fresh coffee and happy fish...

Bucky took a deep breath, he could get through this without a hard-on, and without making Steve uncomfortable.

“She’s certainly good at picking out the color,” Bucky admitted, they’re fuck-buddies, He could compliment Steve on his attractiveness.

“Thanks,” Steve said, relaxing a little before passing Bucky to leave the room.

Well, Bucky was well and truly doomed.

Bucky pulled on his white button-up and straightened out the collar in the mirror with a sad mental sigh.

No, it was worse, their friendship was doomed because Bucky was struggling to control his libido.

***

“Uh, Bucky,” Steve asked twenty minutes later, “Why is there a woman glaring at us like that?”

Bucky put his cup of coffee down and glanced around the room. His eyes glanced over the faces until he made eye contact with Aunt Linda.

While Bucky looked a lot like his mother, Aunt Linda prided herself in fitting an “old fashioned beauty” standard, which really meant a ton of makeup.

Bucky could see that his aunt had spent a lot of money on her most recent facelift, making her face angular and sharp like a boney vulture.

Bucky held his eye contact, grinned and winked at her, and to his surprise, she scoffed and looked away.

Awesome, but surprising.

“The woman who just looked away?” Buck asked, lifting his mug to gesture in her general direction, his aunt continued to scowl at her tableware like a sulking cat and Steve nodded. “That was Aunt Linda, I would have introduced you to her earlier, but there wasn’t time last night.”

“That’s your Aunt Linda?” Steve asked, understanding filling his voice, “You’re cousin Maggie’s mother?”

“The very same,” Bucky whispered, “I’m surprised she didn’t come over to introduce herself…”

Bucky felt a tap on the shoulder, and he glanced around to see his mother, in a lacy blouse and slacks, take a seat next to him, and Bucky could tell his mother didn’t sleep well last night.

She sat down clutching a bloody mary in one hand and leaned against the table like she had been partially deflated.

“That’s because you missed the drama after you took your granduncle’s to their room,” Winifred said with a sigh.

“Drama?” Steve asked, looking concerned.

“I’ll spare you the details,” Winifred said, taking a fortifying sip of her drink. “Linda is furious that you guys, and I quote ‘separated her grandchildren from their father’, and Maggie, I’m so proud of her, she told her mother to buzz off and that she was grateful to you two.”

“So she’s still trying to kill me with her eyes?” Bucky asked, “I’m probably going to stay off Facebook for a while.”

“No need son,” Winifred said with a laugh.

Bucky blinked.

“So you should find yourself unfriended by her in a few hours, and by the way, your Aunt Linda won’t be speaking to you.”

“Aunt Linda was speaking to me?” Bucky asked bewildered.

One asshole relative down and Bucky might not go to as many family events anymore.

Huzzah!

Winifred burst into laughter. Then she sobered a little.

“Anyway, unpleasant family business aside, Becca is going to need some help getting ready for the wedding,” Winifred said, getting to her feet, “the ceremony will be at one, so lunch will be served at the reception. Steve, I can assume you can entertain yourself until then?”

“Why don’t I just help out?” Steve asked in his usual happy to help manner, and Winifred took a double-take, and Bucky saw a familiar glint in her eye.

“Okay, let’s go see Becca now,” Bucky began, leaving his abandoned plate before his mother gestured him to sit down.

“No need Bucky, you finish your breakfast, your boyfriend hasn’t finished his toast, and Becca’s wedding party are off decorating the gazebo they plan on getting married under. Go straight to the gazebo, there are two other weddings going on, so watch where you’re going, I swear I saw a pony walk by on my way here…” Winifred said as she made her way to the door, her bloody mary much emptier than when she sat down.

Steve finished his toast quickly like he was trying to tame his super-soldier metabolism and Bucky made a mental note about grabbing a snack, one high in protein and fiber so Steve wouldn’t get hungry again until the reception.

It looked like his mother was planning their wedding in her head, and the last thing Bucky needed was for her to scare his fuck buddy away.

Bucky’s heart twisted when he reminded himself of that fact, but he refused to indulge himself in useless fantasies of taking Steve out on dates, adopting more fish together, going out on romantic weekends, getting down on one kn--

Bucky shook his head to pull himself out of that rabbit hole.

“Let’s go see what Becca wants,” Steve, the sweet merciful angel he was, said, gesturing to a map to the country club next door to the bed and breakfast.

With steely eyes and expert use of maps, Steve quickly found the gazebo where the bridesmaids and groomsmen were hard at work.

They waved at Bucky and were quick to put them at work, with Steve lifting and carrying chairs for people to watch the ceremony, as two of the groomsmen were rolling out a red carpet for the aisle.

Bucky started gently taping down rows of flowers and white tulle along the pillars of the gazebo while Ryan, Becca’s maid of honor, coached him about flower arrangements.

“I thought you’d be good at this,” She grumbled at him, and Bucky gently elbowed her while he tied the tulle in a bow.

“I never said that I had a natural talent for wedding planning,” Bucky teased, and Ryan, the girl Bucky knew since she was in diapers, stuck her tongue out at him.

"Hey, Bucky is it? Do you think you could help Fitz and Will with the banner?" another groomsman asked and Ryan gestured for Bucky to go as she grumbled and undid the work Bucky just did.

When Bucky came back from hanging the banner for the bride and groom's table during the reception, Steve was in the middle of all the flowers and tulle, expert artistic fingers assembling the little flower bunches. And his talent drawing a crowd of bridesmaids and groomsmen.

"How did you get so good at flower arrangements?" Savannah, Becca's college roommate asked.

"I went to art school for a bit," Steve said sheepishly.

"And you did flower arrangements there?"

"Oh, no,” Steve said bashfully, “but I did a lot of still life and design work for a while…"

"What's all this?" Bucky asked as he got close.

“Bucky, why didn’t you tell us that your boyfriend was so good at this?” one of the bridesmaids asked, probably Savannah, Bucky guessed.

“Uh, you never asked?” Bucky said aloud.

Steve snorted in good humor, and Bucky could swear that there was a dusting of blush there. It was a little warm out, and Steve did have the Irish complexion, Bucky knew that full-body blush intimately well.

Back out of that rabbit hole Bucky-boy…

“So what’s the venue itinerary?” Bucky asked, trying to steer the conversation away from Steve’s strategic mind’s apparent talent for wedding planning. In a few years Steve’s lucky bride would be thrilled to have him in her corner.

“Well, the first wedding is in the field by the water features and fountains, and I think they’re going now, then we’ve got the second wedding starting at about eleven, and that’s where I think the pony comes in,” Will the groomsman said, pointing at a random chestnut pony being lead down a road by its trainer, and a young bride in a leather corset ran after it.

“What’s the pony for?” A familiar voice, one that brought Bucky back to one Christmas where he took the plane home in a quiet fury.

“I don’t know, maybe the bride wants to ride it down the aisle or something, I don’t care,” The groomsmen muttered.

“Well I think it’s a terrible idea for a wedding, horses are expensive and you shouldn’t work with animals in the industry,” the voice continued.

“Thank you Uncle Victor, but as you can see, Becca isn’t bothering with a horse for her wedding,” Bucky said, sensing a lecture coming up. And sure enough, there he was, standing tall, a middle-aged man, and his dad’s younger brother stood to the side, his short chopped hair combed to one side to cover the small patch of skin on his scalp.

“Oh yes, where is Becca?” Uncle Victor asked.

“She’s at the reception venue getting the place in order,” Ryan the Maid of Honor said pointing to somewhere over her shoulder.

“And where’s the groom?” Uncle Victor asked.

“Michael’s picking up the cake from the baker, they had a flat tire,” Will the groomsman said, “Can we help you?”

“Oh no, I just wanted to enforce the tradition that the groom does not lay his eyes on the bride before the wedding, we wouldn’t want there to be a reason for the dress not to be white, am I right?” Uncle Victor asked, then when the bridesmaids and the groomsmen sat in stunned silence, he laughed at his own joke.

“And just what are you implying Uncle Victor?” Bucky asked coldly.

“Oh nothing, just--” Uncle Victor began before a horses frightened whinny cut through the tension.

“Look OUT!” The horse trainer called as a startled pony galloped in the general direction of the gazebo.

Suddenly the wedding party split like the red sea, the poor frightened pony ran past them, tulle getting caught on the pony’s chest, streaming behind the poor animal like it was crossing the finish line of a marathon.

The pony turned with more whinnies, and Uncle Victor dashed away.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” Bucky began softly, he stood his ground. The tulle caused the pony to stop running, but the bright red animal still looked freaked out.

“I gotcha, you’re okay, I just need you to let me help and I’ll take that off of you,” Bucky continued, and the animal seemed to realize he was talking to it because it turned toward him, stamping its feet nervously.

“Hey, hey, I gotcha, you’re okay, you’re okay,” Bucky gently raised his hands, so the pony could see them.

As he slowly approached a few steps, then stopped when the pony reared a little, and slowed a little, slowly waiting to let the pony decided he was a friend. He kept repeating his reassurances like he did the first time Valentina jumped out of the tank and Bucky had to gently scoop her off the ground and into the emergency healing tank.

Like ‘Tina, the pony seemed to sense his calm and affection for it.

Unlike his two-inch fish, this pony was tall enough to rest its shoulders against Bucky’s chest when it calmed down enough for him to detangle it from the tulle, bundling it up and putting it aside so he could pet the pony on the head and neck until it was calm.

“Yeah, oh, you’re so pretty, yes you are,” Bucky whispered as he picked up the loose reins from the horse’s halter and guided it back to the horse trainer.

Becca’s wedding party stood there with their phones out.

Steve just stood there with an unreadable expression, and Bucky nervously tore his eyes away from Steve.

Uncle Victor was nowhere in sight.

Bucky gave the pony a few last pats while the trainer reached forward.

“Thanks,” the Trainer said as he patted the horse gently.

“No problem, no harm done,” Bucky said reassuringly and the pony was happily lead to its destination.

Then Bucky got the gazebo ready, without the tulle, but Bucky knew Becca wouldn’t mind once he told her about the pony.

After the Gazebo and the aisle were properly decorated Bucky pulled back a little. It was eleven in the morning, and the first wedding finished.

It turned out that the bride and groom decided to release butterflies during their ceremony, and the colorful insects were feeding off the flowers in the gazebo, giving the venue a beautiful fairytale appearance.

Bucky pulled out his phone and took a few pictures before he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder.

“Too bad the butterflies will move on before Becca’s ceremony,” Steve observed, and Bucky made sure his mental rabbit hole was shut.

“Yeah, but I think she’ll love the picture,” Bucky said with a shrug, then he put his phone in his pocket, he had to go get ready, and before then he wanted to see his sister.

***

They went back to their rooms to get ready, Bucky taking a shower first because his long hair would need a little longer to dry, and it gave him a little extra time to straighten up his bow tie while Steve showered. Once Bucky was satisfied with his hair being dried off with a towel, he pulled it back into a ponytail.

Bucky tried not to think too hard about Steve’s strange facial expression when he tamed the pony.

Bucky pursed his lips, feeling the really soft undershirt, and paused as he felt the weave under his fingers. This shirt had the usual starched stiffness that all of Steve’s dress uniforms took, but the fiber count was a little more than Bucky expected to get with just a tuxedo rental. His eyebrows shot up when he finished buttoning up the waist coat and glanced at the vanity mirror and mouthed “holy shit”.

The shirt was a rental from the place where Steve got his own tuxedo, and the black waistcoat underneath wasn’t as tailored to Bucky’s fit like Steve’s was, but that didn’t stop it from showing off Bucky’s own shape underneath. Bucky turned this way and that, his eyes never leaving his reflection.

In the bathroom, Bucky could hear Steve turn off the shower and brush his teeth in the sink, before Steve, once again wrapped in the bath towel, opened the door slightly.

“Buck? Have you seen my--” Steve asked but then he trailed off.

Bucky turned to look at him, the tuxedo jacket hanging over Bucky’s arm.

Steve was standing in the door, the same unreadable expression on his face from before.

Bucky’s heart was no longer in his chest, in the span of two seconds his heart had been replaced with a hummingbird’s heart, it was the only way to explain why it was suddenly racing, and why he suddenly felt so warm.

His eyes barely glanced over Steve’s half-naked form but instead focused on how bright blue those eyes were, or how those long blond lashes framed those bright eyes.

“Your what?” Bucky asked when he realized Steve had asked him a question.

“Oh, I think I left my tuxedo in the closet, could you grab it?” Steve asked.

Bucky glanced away from Steve to the wardrobe that took up wall space next to the vanity, and sure enough there was Steve’s tux hanging without a wrinkle. Bucky grabbed it and handed it to Steve.

Steve held it, but he kept standing there.

“Steve?” Bucky asked, and there was that unreadable face, only it looked softer, almost fonder, and Bucky couldn’t help but grin shyly. “Is there anything else you needed?”

Steve’s eyes darted up and down Bucky’s face, and Bucky caught a glimpse of Steve’s Adam’s apple bob a little.

For a wild second, Bucky thought Steve was about to kiss him.

His hummingbird heart sputtered and stopped for that whole second in anticipation, and Bucky leaned a little almost instinctively. If they kissed now, it would be the only time he kissed Steve outside of foreplay.

Steve’s face was warm, and Bucky could smell Steve’s deodorant faintly, a humble scent with a small hint of spice, and Bucky found it almost intoxicating.

And because this was Bucky’s life, the room door swung open, causing Steve to retreat into the bathroom.

“James?” Bucky turned quickly to see his grandmother on his father’s side come in.

“Grandma!” Bucky exclaimed, “Uh, what can I do for you?”

“Oh, I’m sorry to catch you at a bad time, but I wanted to ask if you had time to check in on Becca, she wanted to see you before it was time,” Bucky’s grandmother, mercifully her eyes were on Bucky, not on Steve, or the closed bathroom door concealing Steve from her view.

“I can do that, is there anything wrong?” Bucky asked, checking the time.

“No, I think she wanted to ask you something about your seating arrangement chart, and apparently you haven’t responded to any of her text messages,” She said sadly, and shook her head a little, “I wish she wouldn’t stress herself out like that, it’ll ruin her wedding day if she lets it.”

“Hey, she’s got the greatest family in the world at her back, she’ll be fine,” Bucky said, giving his grandmother a hug.

“Oh and Victor told me about the horse, it was so brave of you to help that poor thing,” She said, returning his hug, and she leaned in and whispered, “And I heard about what you and your boyfriend did for your poor cousin, marry that boy.”

Bucky rolled his eyes and she sashayed her way out.

“What is it with your family coming in while I’m getting out of the shower?” Steve asked from the bathroom door dressed in his tuxedo.

If Bucky looked good in his rental tux, Steve looked breathtaking in his. It was perfectly tailored to his shape, and the light blue lapels made Bucky’s eyes comb up and down Steve’s pectorals.

Bucky’s heart fluttered again.

He had to do something after this wedding or their friendship wouldn’t survive.

***

After reassuring Becca that their table was in the perfect spot, and keeping the asshole relatives as far away from the wedding party as possible until the last minute, the wedding was on.

On August 24th, 2013 at one pm, Rebecca Ann Barnes and Michael Edward Proctor was married under a gazebo while a breeze blew in the nearby trees.

Bucky smiled softly as his sister and his father walked down the aisle, where her groom nearly fainted at the sight of them.

Michael Proctor’s eyes kept drinking in the sight of Becca, almost like he couldn’t believe that this was really happening, and Bucky saw his own sister’s grin.

His own face hurt from smiling so much and he kept catching glimpses of GrandUncle tears next to Steve, who seemed to be enjoying the ceremony.

Becca and Michael said their “I do”s and the guests all cheered when the officiant pronounced them man and wife, and both looked absolutely giddy and drunk on happiness as they walked back down the aisle and invited the guests to follow them over to the reception hall inside the country club a few miles down the road.

Bucky was glad that he had to drive himself and Granduncle Arnie and Granduncle Mikey to the country club where everyone would enjoy a quick late lunch and cake.

“I always cry at weddings,” Arnie said, wiping a spare tear with a handkerchief and Mikey nodded solemnly.

“It was a beautiful ceremony,” Steve said softly, looking forward, and Bucky felt his heart twitch again like it had skipped a beat.

The tables were elegantly decorated, and Bucky could see some small fountains established in the middle of each table with what looked like little bubbles by each of the placemats, and cards with each person’s name by each of the plates.

“Becca did a fantastic job,” Bucky said appreciatively, looking at how the small fountains looked. Then, Becca, her bridal veil gone and white dress flowing behind her elegantly like she was some kind of fae, walked over to Bucky, and eagerly held out her hand to her brother,

“Bucky! I wanted to show you the decorations, I think you’ll like them,” Becca exclaimed, and Bucky shrugged before he grabbed her hand.

Becca eagerly pulled Bucky to their seats, Steve following behind him like a giant tuxedoed golden retriever.

“Tada!” She cheered, “I had to get up early to make sure I put each and everyone in the right place.”

Bucky got one good look at their placemats.

At first glance, it was innocent enough, the plates and silverware were inoffensive and the placemats what some elegant black and silver print, and his spot was easy to see.

And next to “James Barnes”, the placemat next to his made Bucky stifle a laugh.

“Stephen Rodgers” was seated right next to “James Barnes.”

“Uh, My name is Steven Rogers,” Steve began slowly.

“I know,” Becca nodded, “What did I get wrong?”

Bucky tried really hard not to laugh, and he wheezed, “He spells it just like Captain America does.”

Becca’s face fell, then her eyes widened.

“It’s fine,” Steve said quickly, “I didn’t tell you how I spelled my name, how were you supposed to know? It’s fine, and what is that in those little bowls?”

“Surprise!” Becca exclaimed, and Bucky had to take a closer look at those little bowls.

“The lady at the pet store said that their natural habitat is small puddles and water buffalo footprints, and I got so many for the budget. They are gorgeous, can see why you love them so much Bucky!”

Bucky’s mirth died faster than it started, and he noticed wedding guests were watching them.

“Becca, please don’t tell me those are real Betta fish in those bowls?” He asked her quietly.

“What’s wrong?” Becca asked her face turning serious.

Bucky took a deep breath, knowing that he had to be calm.

He knew Becca was going about this from a place of good intentions.

He knew Becca was given misinformation. He almost fell for that same poorly researched marketing trick from people who sold cheap fish tanks for a fish that was quick to breed.

So Bucky took a deep breath and tried to keep calm. His first fish just happened to be lucky that Bucky had some questions, did further research, and found out that his fish would do better in a bigger tank with a heater and filtration system like any other fish he’d find in a pet store.

For others, it never occurred to them to ask if a Betta fish needs more than a vase, and others simply think of their fish as a living decoration without a second thought.

“Becca... Betta fish rarely live in puddles, the idea that they live in puddles and hoof prints are just a myth, one that a lot of people believe. If they are living in puddles, it’s because it’s the dry season, where they would either quickly die or jump out into a larger body of water. It would be like if a human was stuck on a life raft in the middle of the ocean. In the wild, they live in huge ponds, rice paddies or lakes, and they don’t do well in bowls like this.”

Becca, as Bucky sadly predicted, went whiter than her bridal dress, and her eyes widened in the sheer horror at what she had just done.

“Hey, it’s not too late, you can still return them, we just gotta do better research next time,” Bucky said reassuringly, feeling horrible about dropping this bombshell on his sister’s wedding day.

Becca just nodded and quietly made her way to the bride and groom’s table where the rest of the wedding guests went over to congratulate her and her husband on their beautiful ceremony.

That could have gone better.

Quietly Bucky sat down in his seat, and Steve followed suit, their orders arriving by the catering staff as the rest of the reception began to settle a little.

“Hey Bucky, check out the tail on this one,” Steve said quietly peering down at a small electric blue Betta with a short stubby body and a double-lobed tail. The little thing seemed interested in following Steve’s every movement.

After the brief lunch, and the heartfelt sincere speeches Bucky’s parents, Michael’s parents, Michael’s best man, and Becca’s maid of honor, Bucky sat back among a few teary-eyed family members.

GrandUncle Mikey and GrandUncle Arnie were holding hands while Becca seemed to recover from her shock and horror from her unfortunate mistake.

After they were done with the First Dance, she stepped away to make a few phone calls, Bucky had a feeling she was going to talk about and her new husband shuffled away to talk to the guests.

Michael Proctor gave Becca a kiss on her cheek and he smiled, almost an artificial one when he turned and then started thanking guests on his side of the family for coming.

Bucky didn’t realize he was staring at his new brother in law until he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“I’m going to borrow your date for a minute, James,” GrandUncle Arnie said with a grin, reaching to grab Steve by the elbow and lead him away like Steve had any choice in the manner.

“Just don’t scare him off,” Bucky sighed, and Steve did a double-take.

“Who do you take me for? Your granduncle or something?” Arnie laughed and Steve got up to follow him.

Bucky blinked for a moment he could delude himself into thinking Steve looked a little startled, and maybe a little hopeful.

Bah, wishful thinking, Bucky really needed to get his crush under control. He’d either would have to spend less time with Steve and let his crush die down from, or he could do the rational thing at talk to Steve about his feelings like a mature adult instead of cutting Steve out of his life temporarily because he’s picked up a case of the warm fuzzies and it would only complicate their physical arrangement.

Bucky shook his head with a grin as Arnie lead Steve to the table he and Mikey shared. He waited a few more moments, then got to his feet, he might as well make a quick trip to the bathroom before he made his way to the dance floor.

“Hey, Bucky? It’s Michael, do you have a moment?”

Bucky turned and standing to the side, was Michael Proctor, looking at Bucky like he was nervously approaching a dragon.

A fire breathing one.

That was absurd, Bucky might have considered himself a badass, but Becca would kill him in his sleep and make it look like an accident if he insulted her with a shovel talk to her new husband.

Michael, on the other hand, appeared to be oblivious with the kind of protection he had taken on when he married Becca.

Becca would set him straight.

“What do you need Michael?” Bucky asked casually, giving the man a soft, and hopefully reassuring smile.

It helped Michael relax a little.

“Becca finished calling the facility where they got the fish. The breeder’s taking them back and will sell them to more appropriate homes. And we’re really sorry about that,” Michael began quickly, shuffling a little nervously. Bucky just gave him a soft nod and softened his face, and Michael seemed to relax a little more before pressing on.“My mom got the idea off of Pinterest and we didn’t think to look further into the idea, they were originally going to be war and peace vases, but…”

“I get it,” Bucky began, “I don’t agree with what happened, but I know Becca well enough to know you guys wouldn’t be cruel intentionally, and if you want to make amends, just be more careful in the future. ”

“Yeah, but I should have recognized a marketing trick when I saw one, I work in the marketing department, for fuck’---I mean for crying out loud,” Michael said sadly. Then he glanced around as if he wanted to make sure he wasn’t overheard.

They heard someone clear their throats, causing both men to turn and make eye contact with a disapproving older stranger before Bucky glared at him a little and the man walked off with an offended huff.

“Then you should be better about catching these mistakes in the future, now calm down, I don’t want your wife as my enemy.”

Michael snorted and tried to stifle some giggles, and Bucky grinned, glad his joke landed.

“So, we’re good?” Bucky pressed.

“Ye-yeah, we’re good,” Michael said, his tension seeping away.

“Then enjoy the rest of your life with my sister, she’s an incredible woman, and you deserve to be happy with her,” Bucky said firmly, resting his hand on Michael’s shoulder with a firm squeeze.

Then because he had been taking “little shit lessons” from Steve, he turned on his heel and walked away tossing a “See ya at Christmas!” over his shoulder as he left.

Michael just grinned, laughed softly some more, and turned around to go find Becca.

Bucky decided that he needed to go rescue Steve from his GrandUncle Arnie before the old man chased Steve off with implications that he expected Steve to marry Bucky.

It was weird how weddings made Bucky very aware about his relationship status and made people hell-bent on using Steve to remedy that, including Bucky’s own traitorous mind.

Thankfully GrandUncle Arnie was gone, and his cousin Maggie and her children were dragging Steve on to the dance floor. Tegan and Harrison seemed eager to teach their newest “uncle” how to dance.

Bucky began to walk in Steve’s general direction, Arnie Roth knew Steve enough to know his boundaries, but Bucky wouldn’t put it past his cousin to pour some red wine on Steve’s tux to give him an excuse to strip, or worse, on herself so Steve would be seduced by her “womanly goods” and come to her “rescue”.

Bucky saw her do this once when both were teenagers, and Bucky tossed his jacket over her shoulder in a naive attempt to protect her modesty while she was trying to impress a different boy.

Maggie yelled at him on the bus ride back to his parent’s house, but matters got worse when Bucky’s mother saw the stain.

Bucky’s mother realized it was a red wine stain, and scolded them both for underaged drinking.. Bucky was too ashamed to correct his mother’s assumption that he drank, as he was upset about humiliating his cousin in front of a boy she liked.

His mother checked his breath and gave him a sobriety test, then satisfied her son was sober, grounded him for a week for sneaking off to a party without her permission.

Winnie Barnes, sensing what child was the bad influence, refused to let Bucky hang out with Maggie for a few years.

Bucky was suddenly pulled back into the present when he felt someone grab his elbow.

“James, there you are,” Uncle Victor said, appearing from behind Bucky, Bucky inhaled but managed to control himself so he didn’t suplex or fling his uncle into a nearby table.

“Uncle Victor,” Bucky said slowly, his heart rate returning to normal, but his nerves were convinced that he had a fight on his hands coming.

“What did you think of the wedding ceremony?” Uncle Victor asked innocently, “I thought it was beautiful.”

“Yeah, it was gorgeous, and Michael seems like a good man, I think he and Becca will be really happy together,” Bucky said, planning on heading off any repeats of his uncle’s earlier off-color joke before his uncle made the jokes. It was Becca’s wedding and he was not about to let the man spoil the occasion.

“You’re such a good man James, always looking out for your family and friends,” Uncle Victor said softly.

“Of course, I will always look out for Becca, she does the same for me.”

“Oh I’m not talking about just that,” Uncle Victor said and gestured to the dance floor.

Bucky smiled softly as Steve shuffled around the dance floor, some of his younger cousins had joined Maggie’s children, many of them wanted to show Steve the chicken dance, and the DJ was indulging the children. Others were eagerly pressing Steve for the story about how he and “Uncle Bucky” stood up to Tegan’s dad.

Tegan snuck around the edge of the dance floor, nervously glancing at her grandmother before she began to dance along.

Bucky noticed that Steve shifted himself a little to shield the little girl from that woman’s glare, and encouraged the little girl to have fun.

Steve kept glancing at Bucky with an awkward grin, Bucky felt a certainty that his “emotional-support-plus-one-dash-petsitter-dash-fuck-buddy-dash-trade mark” was having fun playing with the kids, but Bucky wasn’t far from his mind.

It made Bucky’s chest tighten and his skin tingled, and when Bucky glanced into Steve’s blue eyes from a distance, warm and happy, Bucky felt his internal organs get replaced with gelatin during an earthquake.

“I...I don’t know what you mean,” Bucky said, trying not to let Steve’s clumsy dancing distract him from his uncle.

“I meant you did a fantastic job introducing your single buddy to your cousin, I think they will make a beautiful family together.”

Wait…

Now hold a fucking minute!

“Excuse me?” Bucky asked, and his uncle laughed.

“Stop being so coy, James, you and I both know the purpose of you bringing your pal to your sister’s wedding. It’s a brilliant move, couples are more likely to stick together if they have a physical reminder of a goal,” Uncle Victor said with a smirk, “And your cousin has proven to be quite the mother, I’m sure your friend would love to start a family with her.”

Bucky felt his stomach roll.

“Steve is here as my date,” Bucky said sharply, his mind exclaiming that he sounded more like he was whining.

Uncle Victor looked back at Bucky with a surprised expression, “Are you sure? He looks like he’s enjoying himself out there with your cousin.”

Bucky looked back at Steve, and the song was winding down, all the kids swarming around Steve, and Bucky felt like he had been punched in the gut. Steve did look happy, surrounded by children and a part of Bucky’s mind reminded him that if Steve hadn’t been frozen in ice he would have lived to see the end of the war, come home, marry Peggy Carter, and probably have several baby boomers bouncing on his knee as he told them war stories years before Bucky would even be born.

If things had been different, Steve would probably be happily surrounded by grandchildren.

Bucky knew where he stood compared to Peggy Carter, she was the love of Steve’s life, Bucky was just his no strings attached fuck buddy.

Fuck buddies didn’t give men families.

Just like a moron Bucky forgot his place and let his feelings get involved.

Steve waved at Bucky, his eyes lit up, Maggie tried to get him to join her in conversation. He couldn’t hear what Steve was saying, but Bucky saw Steve gesture to GrandUncle Arnie, and Maggie looked disappointed but she picked up Harrison and began to slow dance with her toddler in her arms.

Bucky tried not to read too much into that, but he did find it a little encouraging.

“So what? Steve’s allowed to have fun, it’s a wedding after all, and that’s none of your business what I and my boyfriend do with our time.”

“James, take it from a wise old man, you are wasting your time,” Uncle Victor said, his tone sounded like Bucky was choosing to remain obtuse, “men like him are never gay, they always go with friends to pick up women. No excuses James, I know what I’m talking about, that’s how I met my wife, and never looked back.”

“Steve is bi, so what? Who he goes out with is his decision, not mine, and definitely not yours!” Bucky snapped.

“James, calm yourself, I can’t believe you fell for that fantasy, some men pretend to be gay to attract women, bisexuality is just a myth gay men make up to excuse their ex-boyfriends when those men come to their senses and settle down with women. My pastor has seen it happen multiple times. It’s only natural that you’ll help him find a wife, that’s what friends are for.”

Bucky could not believe that he had heard that, or heard it with such sincerity.

Even if Bucky could never have Steve, Bucky didn’t have to put up with this ever.

“What is this bullshit?” Bucky snapped suddenly aware he had raised his voice, but his blood was thundering in his ears, and he had trouble caring, “I can’t believe men like GrandUncle Mikey, Arnie, or my grandmother raised such an intolerant bigot like you. Stop trying to tell me how to live my life, stop trying to meddle in my relationships.”.

Bucky caught a glimpse of the bride and groom, suddenly remembering that this was Becca’s wedding, and summoned the will to keep him from punching that smug face in.

Then, like he was in a firefight, his mind switched from a wave of hot anger to a pit of cold fury.

Why the fuck did he have to put up with this?

He had nothing to prove to this man, they might have been related to each other by blood, but Bucky didn’t think he could tolerate this many anymore, not for his grandma’s sake, his relationship with her didn’t depend on his relationship with this man at all.

Bucky blinked, silence pouring into his ears like he was fifty feet down a deep ocean current, the entire wedding reception hall had gone quiet, the DJ, the guests, Steve, his grandmother, and his family were watching him. Bucky took a deep breath, it was now or never.

“I don’t have anything more to say to you, and I don’t think I’ll be coming back to family events you’re going to. So, have a nice life, Mr. Barnes,” Bucky said with finality, and Steve took that as his cue to get to his feet. “Steve, we’re leaving.”

“Right, Buck,” Steve got to his feet and got ready to leave when he glanced at the small bowl with the little blue Betta fish, and how the little guy was sinking at an odd angle.

His heart went out to him, but Bucky was too far away to help the fish.

“Now, Steven!”

“I’m coming,” Steve called, and picked up the little bowl, opening his tux jacket to gently shield the little fish from the bright lights, holding the little guy in his open hand, “I got ya,” He whispered to the little fish.

“Congratulations!” Steve told Becca as he walked past her and her husband.

Bucky was waiting for him, already undoing his bow tie by the car and Steve opened his jacket a little to flash the little fish at Bucky. “We’re going to need to swing by a pet store on our way back home from the hotel.”

Bucky lifted his eyebrows and gestured Steve to get into the car.

Bucky could barely remember the drive from the country club to the bed and breakfast, his heart was still racing, and Steve patted him on the back with his free hand while he covered the Betta bowl with the other after Bucky parked the car in the parking lot and deflated a little.

“Well, that was one massive bridge burned,” Bucky said quietly, almost quivering. He did it, he’d never have to listen to that man again, and it only cost him his whole entire family, but at least he had his fuck buddy Steve by his side.

“I’m proud of you Buck,” Steve whispered, and Bucky shot him a weak grin while he tried to pull himself back together.

Once they got back to their room, Steve grabbed all the complimentary bottles of water from the mini-fridge and water from the sink to create a temporary tank with the big coffee pot that came with the room. Bucky carefully measured out a little table salt so the little fish could have some water retention and the placed the little guy under a lamp to keep his water warm.

Steve studied the little betta for signs of stress, noticed that the fish was a bit stockier than the others including Bucky’s fish back home, sitting on the bottom of the tank, his tail flickered looking like a double-lobed heart.

The fish sat at the bottom, and Steve glanced at Bucky.

“Let’s give him a little time to adjust,” Bucky said nervously, taking off his jacket and undershirt.

“So, are we going to discuss what happened earlier?” Steve asked.

Bucky paused, his heart thundering under his collar bone like a herd of thundering bison. His fingers paused while unbuttoning the white shirt, the smooth fabric under his finger tips, before glancing at Steve.

What did Steve want to talk about? Was it about how Bucky decided to cut out of his uncle from his life? Bucky didn’t think so, Steve wouldn’t be affected by it unless he wanted to make sure Bucky was okay.

Steve had already pulled off his tuxedo jacket, bow tie, and shirt while Bucky had established the temporary tank, hanging them in the hotel closet to keep the tuxedo nice, Steve’s great depression sensibilities wouldn’t let him risk wrinkling his expensive tuxedo.

“And by what happened earlier did you mean before the wedding, or the reception, or…?” Bucky asked, standing shirtless before bed, suddenly feeling the cool air conditioning of the room.

Steve opened his mouth, almost like he wanted to say something, but Steve closed his mouth in a way he did when he didn’t want to discuss something. For a moment Bucky had a wild thought that those eyes were bright with affection, with care, and for a crazy moment, Bucky was back down that rabbit hole with a question.

Did Steve have feelings for Bucky too?

But the question was, would Bucky be ready for another relationship after going out with… He-who-shall-not-be-named?

Back up, Barnes, first he should probably, no, Steve has to ask Bucky his question.

Steve swallowed, and looked Bucky in the eye, like he was trying to come to a decision.

“I mean, what happened before your grandmother came in, I realized something, and I think we need to have a serious discussion,” Steve began, then he shifted and pulled on the flannel shirt from this morning.

Suddenly aware at his undressed state, Bucky pulled on his shirt from breakfast, fingers securing the buttons under the sheer power of muscle memory.

“About what?” Bucky asked, being fully dressed helping to boost his confidence.

Steve took a deep breath, “About-about us, what do you think we should do after we go home?”

“I,” Bucky began, and he realized he didn’t fully know, and he’d have to ask Steve how he felt, but that would mean admitting to his feelings, and take a gamble down that rabbit hole.

Bucky took a deep and steadying breath.

“I know it’s so soon after your ex, and I’m sure you’re not interested in starting anything, but I have a confession to make,” Steve pressed on, and Bucky stopped, flabbergasted.

“What is it?” Bucky asked, “Steve, you can tell me anything.”

“I really like you, Bucky.” Steve said, looking like a man about to calmly step into the gallows for a cause he believed in. “but if you don’t feel the same, that’s okay, I’d prefer our friendship over the alternative, and if you’re still hurting from your last relationship, I’ll be happy to support that.”

“How long?” Bucky asked, hope was making his heart beat again as Bucky felt more like he was not only going down the rabbithole, but if he kept going he’d wind up in Wonderland.

“Months, I guess, but then you started dating Him, and I stepped back so you could be happy,” Steve said, and Bucky noticed he was starting to blush.

Wait, months? And “then you started dating Him”?

“So you’ve had this crush since what? Last christmas?” Bucky asked.

Steve took a deep breath and nodded.

And, Bucky felt like he had a balloon in his diaphragm, his nerves were on fire, his heart was racing and his stomach flopped around like it was full of those butterflies from earlier.

“You don’t owe me anything, and if you’re not interested, that’s more than okay,” Steve continued, and Bucky saw it for what it was.

It was an offer, and an exit strategy at the same time.

It was time, no past time, for Bucky would have to come clean about his feelings too.

“Okay, I don’t owe you anything, and you don’t owe me anything. That being said, I care a lot about you Steve, and I have… started feeling things for you too, recently, like a little while after I broke up with my ex.”

Steve’s eyes brightened a little with hope.

“What kind of feelings?” Steve asked.

“This kind.” Bucky said, and he gave in.

He leaned in, placed his hand on Steve, and looked into those blue eyes, then his eyes darted down to Steve’s lips, and parted his lips in a silent invitation.

Steve met him halfway, accepting the invitation with a gentle kiss, lips pressed against each other as the mouths explored how they felt against each other tenderly.

This was no passionate kiss to excite them for sex, through Bucky felt his cock stir with interest, small bolts of electricity circulated in his lower stomach and groin.

The softness was welcome, Steve’s mouth tasted faintly of the fish and white wine dishes they ate a Becca’s reception, but the reality didn’t disrupt the buzz Bucky felt at realizing that he had a good chance of happiness with this man.

In hindsight Bucky supposed it should have been obvious.

“So what?” Bucky asked when they pulled back, foreheads against each other in dizzy relief, “Are we boyfriends or something?”

“Or something, take me out to dinner and we’ll see,” Steve teased, and Bucky kissed him again to seal the deal.

“And you’re going out because you like me, not because my family are trying to set us up right?”

Steve snorted, “Like you would let any member of your family dictate how you live your life.”

Well, that was true now.

“Hey, let’s celebrate by seeing if these twin beds can be pushed together?” Bucky asked.

Steve pulled back, his hand on his heart in mock scandal. “Why Mr. Barnes, what kind of fella do you take me for?”

Then Steve moved to the other side of his bed, and they began to push them together.

What was different about all the other times they had sex, this wasn’t just for fun, or mutual pleasure, but about establishing their bond, deeping it.

Instead of making demands, or requests for their partner, Steve and Bucky would ask the other if they wanted something and would deliver upon the requested kiss, nip, suck or fingering.

If Bucky were a sappy man, he would have called it love making, and it was over in a whirlwind of excitement.

Steve stopped, gazing deeply into Bucky’s eyes, as Bucky pulled himself off Steve, and gently reached up.

“Buck,” Steve whispered, after both were sated, as he reached over to cup Bucky’s head, his hair messy and in disarray as strands escaped from his ponytail.

“Yeah?” Bucky asked his heart fluttered and Bucky suspected that he knew what Steve was about to say..

“I lo--”

Then their phones began to ring.

“That might either be Becca or work,” Bucky sighed and sat up and pulled out his phone, “Text from Becca, looks like you get to keep the fish you grabbed.”

Then Steve got up, and did a double take, and Bucky remembered that they had the blue Betta in the spare coffee pot.

Ever the good petsitter, Steve got up, and looked at the desk as he placed the quarantine coffee pot.

“Bucky, he’s floating funny.”

“How so?” Bucky asked, suddenly worried and mentally trying to remember all the fish diseases he knew of. “is he floating upside down or on his side?”

“Sort of on his side, but he looks like he’s struggling to rise,” Steve observed, the poor little guy was moving his fins, but seemed to hover awkwardly a few inches above the bottom at a slight angle.

“That’s not good, they are a type of labyrinth fish, which means they need gas air on top of dissolved air in the water, I’m going to drain a little and see if that helps him.” Bucky jumped out of bed, and with the complimentary coffee pot began to pour some of the water out, and when the pot was only half full, the little fish managed to wiggle his way to the surface and take a gulp of air.

“So, let’s see if that fixes his problem, Steve why don’t you look up health issues for double tail Betta fish, and or swim bladder issues,” Bucky ordered, and Steve picked up his phone.

Bucky knew Steve would feel better if he had some information about the subject.

There wasn’t much besides lowering the level, giving a fresh water change later, and the salt he already added, that he could do for the little guy for now. Swim bladder issues sometimes went away with clean water and fasting, sometimes they needed treatment for infection, it was trial and error at this point.

“So, double tail bettas have a few genetic issues, including chronic lifelong swim bladder issues,” Steve began, “Is this common for the breed?”

Bucky set the little guy down, and watched, and the little fish managed to make it to the surface and took a big gulp of air.

“Yeah, double tails are more likely to get it than other kinds of Betta fish, but it’s treatable, and I think we can pull out that twenty gallon tank you gave me for Christmas, it’s still empty.”

“So you think he’ll make it?”

“At this point it’ll be touch and go, but I don’t see why not, he’s got you on his side.” Bucky said, and both leaned back on the bed, watching the blue Betta fish begin to swim laps around the coffee pot.

“Yeah, I think his odds will be good.” Bucky said with growing confidence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue next week it's almost ready!


	8. Fiancés

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And they lived happily ever after...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!  
> It's finally done!  
> Special thanks for everyone who helped me during this crazy adventure. This fic was fun to write.  
> Enjoy!

August 25th 2013,

“And here’s my phone number, it’s a landline so don’t bother texting me with it,” Arnie Roth said as Bucky and Steve were dropping him and his husband off at the airport in time for their flight back home. He looked at Steve with a stern eye.“I had better not lose touch with you again Rogers, I can’t afford to wait seventy more years.”

“Of course not, Arnie,” Steve said in a solemn tone, but he betrayed that with a grin as he closed the trunk to Bucky’s car. Arnie’s suitcase was if possible even heavier, and Steve knew Arnie was messing with him, Mikey’s suitcase was impossibly light.

“And remember what I told you at the wedding,” Arnie pressed, and Steve, out of respect for his old friend, didn’t roll his eyes.

“Arnie, I,” Steve began and glanced at Bucky, what they had was so new, and at the same time so familiar, but nothing is certain yet.

“Arnie, leave the boy be,” Mikey interrupted, “Or am I gonna have to remind you about the time your Aunt Ethel decided to take matters into her own hands.”

Arnie went pale before he scowled at his husband.

Steve blinked, “Aunt Ethel, wasn’t she the lady who…”

“Steve, if any woman related to you by blood tries to end your apparent single status by any means necessary, even going as far as to hire a matchmaker from the old country, run. Run as fast as you can, as far as you can, and take my Bucky with you.”

Mikey burst into hysterical laughter, and when he got his breath back, he said very proudly, “I had to wear a dress to convince that blind old man I was Arnie’s secret wife.”

“I never heard this story,” Bucky began slowly but Arnie, avoiding eye contact with both Steve and Bucky, quickly grabbed his suitcase and tried to pull it into the airport.

“I’ll call you when we get home James, have a safe drive, and we love you!” Arnie said quickly pulling his heavier suitcase behind him while Mikey howled with laughter behind him.

“Remember James, the trick is to convince the matchmaker that you’re with--”Mikey continued. “Our plane, darling!” Arnie interrupted so how exactly Mikey convinced the Matchmaker to leave them alone remained a mystery. Steve saw his old friend’s blush color the back of his neck as he herded his husband to the door to the airport ticket line.

Mikey, waved and the old couple disappeared into the crowd of the airport, Mikey’s laughter fading after they disappeared from view.

“You know what, I don’t think I want to know the ending to that story,” Bucky said as he watched the crowd as if he was expecting his granduncle to pop back out of the crowd to finish telling Bucky what he did to convince a matchmaker to go back to the old country.

“Knowing the neighborhood, he probably tricked the matchmaker by claiming he’s with the mafia,” Steve said shaking his head.

“Sounds believable,” Bucky said with a shrug, and he climbed into his car, and Steve climbed in, ready to drive back to Bucky’s place to relieve Bruce of his pet sitting duties, and probably make out with Bucky in the comfort of Bucky’s apartment.

But first, they would set up the tank for Steve’s new fish.

August 26th, 2013,

“It looks like he’s adjusting pretty well to his new tank set up,” Bucky said as they got back from the gym the next morning to feed the fish. Steve leaned next to Bucky to look at the shallow tank, the twenty-gallon tank was half full with a special canister filter next to it to make sure the water remains clean, with some extra silk plants for the blue double tail to swim around the tank.

“Thanks Buck,” Steve said with some relief.

“So what are you going to name him?” Bucky asked.

Steve looked at the bright blue, reminding him of a certain kind of test tube and a scientist who gave a kid from Brooklyn a chance.

“Erskine.”

“Well, it looks like it’s time for Erskine and the others to get something to eat,” Bucky began, lifting his small container of fish food, and Erskine bolted to hide under a wide silk leaf.

Steve gently lifted the tank lid and slowly descended his fingers down to drop a few pellets close to Erskine so he could easily find them, only for Erskine to dart from under the leaf and Steve felt a small fishy mouth pinch his index and Erskine landed back into the water, his head nodding as he ground up his food and swallowed.

“Punk,” Both humans muttered affectionately.

April 7th, 2014,

Bucky had a long mission, and it was the kind where almost everything went sideways in all the abnormal ways.

For one, he got a report to arrest his boyfriend, his boyfriend’s civilian friend Sam, and the Black Widow if he ever came across from them for questions in their part of Fury’s assassination--What?

But the mission went even crazier, they protected the target and managed to get them to safety, but then half his team had gotten orders from some mystery higher up and Bucky discovered that a few of his teammates were Hydra.

Yeah, some of the guys who Bucky would take a bullet for turned out to be neo-Nazis who didn’t have an issue turning their guns towards their openly gay teammate. Bucky pushed the betrayal down to deal with after he got out of this alive.

The rest of the mission was a nasty fight, bullets were fired, punches were thrown, and more than a few friendships were ended.

Bucky almost didn’t make it out alive when a former teammate snuck upon him and whispered “Hail Hydra” in his ear before Bucky shot him. Despite his close brush with death, he finished the mission successfully. He came out bruised, battered, but alive and not seriously harmed.

Then he arrived at headquarters, three strange helicarriers were smoking ruins in the Potomac, and SHIELD was more or less in shambles. Bucky rushed to his locker and pulled out his personal phone. The phone had been filled with voicemails and text messages after Bucky pulled it out and turned it on. His parents, sister, granduncles, and grandmother all wanted to make sure he was alright after Captain America and the Black Widow created an intelligence leak and there was footage of the Black Widow speaking before a Congressional Committee about how Hydra had infiltrated Governments across the world.

First Bucky had a moment of confusion as to the gravity of what had occurred while he was in the field before he realized he hadn’t checked in on one important person.

Where was Steve?

Bucky quickly changed from his uniform into his civilian clothing and made his way out of the building, quickly ducking around reporters, and once Bucky reached his car, he decided to make a quick call. This was too urgent for a text message.

“Hello, this is Steve’s personal voicemail, please leave me a message after the beep, *beeep*”

“Goddamn it, Stevie, pick up,” Bucky grumbled, then he hung up, and tossed his phone onto the dashboard of his car with a sigh.

He considered trying again when his phone began to vibrate, and Bucky quickly reached for it. The screen flashed and Steve’s personal phone number flashed across it.

Bucky instantly pressed “Accept call”.

“Steve?” Bucky asked quickly.

“Hi, Bucky? It’s Sam,” Bucky heard a voice he only heard on a few occasions, of fun days when he got to hang out with a few of his boyfriend’s friends.

“Sam? How’s Steve?” Buck asked.

“He’s alright, he’s in the hospital, but the Doc thinks he’s going to be back on his feet by tomorrow, and he’s asking to talk to you.”

“Tell Steve I’m on my way, I’m going to want to hear what happened when I get there,” Bucky said, reaching for the ignition of his car, and he hung up.

He drove to the hospital, stuck in DC traffic, having to wave his way around the other cars before he reached the visitor’s parking lot, and texted Sam his arrival.

Sam quickly ushered Bucky to Steve’s room, Bucky flashing his SHIELD badge to the pair of armed guards.

Both guards double-checked Bucky’s clearances and let him in, but they watched him warily and Bucky found himself doing the same.

Steve was awake, laying back in a hospital gown with a blanket over his lap. He looked like shit, his face was scratched, and one of his cheekbones were swollen. Bucky’s own bruises twinged in sympathy and his sore muscles ached, but unlike Steve, Bucky didn’t need to spend a few nights in the hospital, and Bucky didn’t have any super-soldier serum either.

“Hey Buck,” Steve croaked, then cleared his throat.

Bucky pushed down his worry a little, he didn’t need to yell at Steve right now.

“Are you alright?” Bucky asked.

“I’m fine Bucky,” Steve protested, “And Natasha’s feeding the fish.”

Bucky was glad, the sudden loss of SHIELD had driven all thought he had about them.

“What happened?” Bucky asked.

Steve explained what happened while Bucky was out of town, how he found Fury at his apartment, how the apartment exploded, being on the run from Hydra, teaming up with Natasha (and Bucky quietly made a note to send her a fruit basket and some flowers for having his boyfriend’s back), and when Steve explained that he had missed some of Hydra’s higher-ups the first time, Bucky interrupted him.

"...And then I realized Hydra was deeper into SHIELD than I thought, so we put all the information on the internet so they couldn't hide anymore because our secrecy the first time made it so they could try again..."

"Wait, back up,” Bucky began sharply, the stress of the day and his exhaustion, only made Steve’s unintentional secret even more painful, “the first time? You mean Hydra infiltrated my place of work, and you didn't tell me?!"

“We thought we had it handled, and it was under Avengers Jurisdiction,” Steve flushed, “and you were busy dating Him at the time so..."

"Steven Grant Rogers, that’s no excuse, even when we were just friends I would have appreciated that information!" Bucky began, “I just had some guys I had once considered friendly acquaintances show their true colors and I almost didn’t get out alive because I didn’t know I needed to watch out for them.”

Then Steve went pale, and he went a little shamefaced when he realized the level of danger he had inadvertently put Bucky in.

Bucky took a deep breath and realized that it wasn’t just Steve’s fault, in his shoes, he would have done the same thing, if he was sure he had taken down Hydra and kept Steve’s job safe. But now that he thought about it, they both had a policy of not sharing classified information with each other for obvious reasons.

The guards from the door were watching him, and they looked about ready to escort Bucky out.

“And I shouldn’t be yelling at you,” Bucky said weakly, “ we’ve both had a shitty week.”

“I’m sorry Bucky,” Steve said, and Bucky couldn’t resist giving him a gentle kiss, careful to not aggravate his injuries.

“I’m sorry too, Steve,” Bucky said, “I know you had your reasons, and now we know how to do better in the future.”

Steve leaned back on the hospital bed and finished telling Bucky about what happened, about how he got Sam’s help after Steve and Natasha had escaped from Zola (Making that the second person Bucky needed to send fruit baskets and flowers too), discovering that Fury was alive (and Steve told him that with a classified whisper) before Steve explained what happened with the helicarriers and Steve’s brutal fight with Rumlow on the third helicarrier which crashed into the Triskelion.

By then their emergency message had reached Clint, Bruce, and Tony, and thanks to their newest two recruits Wanda and Pietro, they were able to reduce the number of innocent casualties.

Bucky later saw the footage where the Scarlet Witch made her avengers debut by halting the helicarriers from crushing people and easing them into the river so none got hurt, and Quicksilver carried injured people away from the fire, where Bruce provided first aid, ready to become the Hulk if they needed a bodyguard.

At this rate, Bucky would be looking at debt as he tried to repay everyone who saved Steve during this misadventure.

Rumlow was in the intensive care unit from the burns, while Steve fell into the river below and Sam was able to fish him out in time like an osprey pulling out a trout (make that also a gift card). Then Steve woke up to the Troubleman soundtrack and Sam by his side.

“But enough about me, Are you alright?” Steve asked finally done, and Bucky saw Steve’s eyes go over every bruise on Bucky’s face.

“I’m fine, I’m not the one who wound up in a hospital,” Bucky said and pointed out, and he gently leaned in to kiss Steve on the forehead, carefully avoiding Steve’s injuries, “and I have to tell my family that you’re alright, they’re worried too, and Granduncle Arnie will be arriving tomorrow.”

“Wait, you called Arnie?” Steve asked startled.

Bucky began a slow grin, “Now you’re going to learn what’s it like to have a grandparent.”

Steve groaned, and a nurse cleared her throat and firmly told Bucky that visiting hours were over and he needed to leave.

April 8, 2014

Steve was released from the hospital the next morning, his serum healing most of the damage he had received from the helicarrier, and Bucky picked him up before Arnie’s plane would land.

“So where to?” Bucky asked as the nursing staff wheeled his wheelchair away and Steve eased his way into Bucky’s car.

“Well, my place was destroyed, and Tony’s talking about giving me a floor in his tower, or quarters in our new headquarters, but that won’t be ready for another year,” Steve began slowly, and Bucky looked at him.

“So, my place?” Bucky asked, and then realized he didn’t finish his sentence, “I mean do you want to stay at my place in the meantime?”

Steve sat in silence, and for a moment Bucky was sure Steve was about to turn him down and offer to stay at a hotel until he said, “Bucky, are-are you asking me to move in you?”

“If that’s what you want, then yes, if you want your own space, then it’s just a place to crash,” Bucky began rapidly, his heart racing and he fixed his gaze on the dashboard, turning the ignition and putting the car into drive rather than read what was on Steve’s face and break his heart.

“Bucky, I would be happy to move with you,” Steve said emphatically, and he gently pulled Bucky’s face up for a warm and searing kissing. To keep the car in place, Bucky pressed his foot firmly onto the brake instead of the gas pedal and kiss Steve back firmly, and the annoyed nurse tapped on Steve’s car window, reminding them where they were.

Steve and Bucky didn’t make eye contact for a few minutes as Bucky drove them home, the fish were eager to greet them.

April 9th 2014,

“Hey Buck?”

“Yeah Steve?”

“Did you have a backup plan for your next job?”

“Not yet, I’m still rewriting my resume, why?”

“The Avengers are expanding, and we’ve got some openings, Sam’s applying too.”

“Awesome, so what’s your health plan? It’s got dental right?”

May 2nd, 2015,

“...And with that, the Avengers Headquarters are now open!” Tony Stark announced as all the Avengers cheered, including a few of their new members like Rhodey, Scott Laing, Sam Wilson, and Bucky. Wanda and Pietro had taken a liking to Steve and Bucky-using his old SHIELD codename Winter Soldier- made fantastic pet sitters, although most the Avengers were happy enough to take on that responsibility when Steve and Bucky had a spare weekend for a romantic mini trip.

It was going great so far, as the Avengers had set up a new system where they were more or less working like highly trained firemen, for world-ending emergencies.

They kept training, and Bucky quietly observed that since joining Steve among the Avengers, he wound up in the best shape of his life, and it was nice to have a huge support network when Faraday and Tesla died of old age.

Bruce found a nice place in the garden to bury the fish because everyone didn’t like the idea of flushing the fish down the toilet, Clint pulled out the trowel so they could bury the fish deep enough to keep them away from animals, Thor provided refreshments for the wake, and everyone gave Steve and Bucky space. Natasha, Wanda, and Pietro cleaned and sanitized the old fish tanks, and Tony offered to buy Steve and Bucky tickets to Thailand to tour a betta fish breeding facility if they wanted to get a new fish or two.

It was nice to see the Avengers form a family for Steve, as Bucky’s side of the family kept clamoring to find out why Steve and Bucky hadn’t tied the knot yet. Bucky didn’t tell anyone, but tonight, Bucky was planning on proposing to Steve after they retired to their quarters, and make the proposal in private.

His mother, however, seemed to sense something because while Bucky was celebrating the opening of the Avengers’ new headquarters, his mother was sending text messages to find out if he and Steve were coming home for Christmas, promising that Uncle Victor wasn’t coming, but Bucky put his phone on silent for now.

“And to protect our security system and handle our computer security I would like to introduce Ultron!” Tony announced, “Say hello Ultron!”

The Avengers waited for Ultron to say hi, but then JARVIS spoke up.

“Sir, We are having technical difficulties, Ultron has just been attacked by a virus attack and we’d like your help Immediately.”

Tony went pale and ran to the lab to intervene immediately before any damage could be done. Bucky’s ring remained in his pocket.

May 4th, 2015,

Three days later Tony, Bruce, Scott Laing, and even Thor emerged from the lab, and the Avengers gained a new member, an Android who was a mix of what was left of ULTRON and JARVIS and called himself Vision.

Bucky, realizing how close they had come to disaster, invited Steve into their quarters with some Thai take out and a ring.

May 6th 2016.

Peter Parker hummed to himself, as he made his way to the address on his phone, his head bobbing to the beat he was hearing in his headphones.

It was really nice of Mr. Stark to recommend him as a pet sitter for Mr. Captain America.

He knocked on the door, and the door was pulled open.

“Captain Rogers?” Peter asked, “I’m Peter, Peter Parker, Mr. Stark’s intern? And I was told you needed a pet sitter?”

“Oh, just a moment,” Said the tall brown-haired man standing behind the door, “And I’m Bucky, Bucky Barnes-Rogers."

Peter almost dropped his backpack in surprise as the Avenger, the Winter Soldier turned around and called into the room, “Steve, our pet sitter is here, so put that suitcase down and let’s get the kid up to speed!”

"Nice to meet you Mr. Winter Soldier and Mr. Captain America!" Peter said, holding his hand out, "I am looking forward to watching your fish, so don't worry about a thing while you're on your honeymoon!"

"Thanks," Captain Barnes-Rogers said ascame he in to the room Mr. Barnes-Rogers gestured Peter into the living room.

“We keep the fish in this room, we have two empty tanks, they are currently waiting for the water chemistry to settle, and all we’ve got are live plants growing, so don’t worry about feeding that tank, we just need you to turn on the light in the morning and off at night.” Mr. Barnes-Rogers began and picked up a tin of brightly colored fish pellets, "this is their normal food and we give them four pellets each, and at night we're giving them some frozen worms as a treat, the green male, Banner, gets three of them, the blue male has special needs so Steve will fill you in about him, and the females share a half teaspoon, and on Fridays they get this eyedropper full of the brine shrimp Bruce will bring them so don't worry about growing them…" Mr. Winter Soldier explained, Peter pulled out a notebook to write everything down. Then Mr. Winter Soldier had Peter feed the green male, a shy thing that kept hiding between each pellet, and the larger tank full of the female fish, and just in case of a fight, he showed peter where the tank dividers were.

"Alright, it's time for Steve to show you how to take care of the blue male," Mr. Winter Soldier said, "I need to wrap our nephew's gift."

"My sister-in-law had a baby in New York a few weeks ago, so we're visiting them before we head to France, that being said," Captain America said before handing Peter a list of numbers and addresses, "These are the numbers and places we will be staying, don't be afraid to call us if there is any emergency."

Then the Captain lead Peter to a tank that was half full of water, "This is Erskine's tank, he was congenital swim bladder issues, so the water is shallower than the others and he gets water Daphnia and his pellets need to soak before you feed him, and he does jump, but don't be scared he's just a punk."

Peter peered into the half full long tank where a blue fish wove around several plants and from under a foamy patch of bubbles before the fish lept out and flopped back down like an orca whale, crashing on some of the food and eating the pellets as they sank.

"When I get back, I am going to train him to jump through a hoop," The Captain explained.

"You can do that?" Peter asked.

"We're gonna try," he said, "but don't worry about that he has to get used to seeing the hoop."

Peter saw a bright blue hair tie laying near the tank close to where Erskine was picking up food from the bottom of the tank.

"You got this?" Captain America asked.

I got this, Peter thought to himself, and he grinned and nodded, "have a fun honeymoon, Cap!"

This was going to be an interesting month for Peter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


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